


Into fire

by ceciliasol



Category: Frozen (Disney Movies)
Genre: Anna is a swordswoman, Anna loves children, Canon compliant with Forest of Shadows, F/F, Fluff, Supportive Siblings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-04
Updated: 2020-04-24
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:27:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 26,694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23485303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ceciliasol/pseuds/ceciliasol
Summary: "The heat doesn't bother me."There is a shift in nature. Elsa sees visions behind her eyelids, of wildfire and desperation. It feels as if nature is trying to tell her something important, but what? All that she knows is that things are changing. Wolves of fire now roam the Enchanted Forest, Anna deals with her first crisis as the Queen of Arendelle, and Elsa finds her feelings for a certain friend might be more than those of friendship. Could there be a link between all of those things?When all her certainties go up in flames, and she struggles to maintain the balance between humans and spirits, Elsa is reminded once again that the past is not always what it seems.
Relationships: Elsa/Honeymaren (Disney)
Comments: 33
Kudos: 96





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I've written a lot of fiction before, but this is my first fanfic. All feedback is appreciated, and please do tell me if I make mistakes with English grammar or semantics, because that'll help me get better at writing <3

“Good morning, your Majesty.”

Elsa sighed. She knew the owner of that voice.

“Honeymaren,” said Elsa, reproachfully. “I thought I told you not to call me that.”

“She’s just trying to get a rise out of you,” Ryder announced, earning him a jab on the arm by his sister.

Elsa shook her head, and got up on her feet. She had come to a place near the fjord to meditate, somewhere she’d thought to be nicely remote enough that nobody would bother her. And she had been wrong, because of course the Nattura twins would have found her, wherever she went.

They were good friends of hers. In the months since Elsa first came to live in the forest, their help had been invaluable for the former Queen of Arendelle to learn the culture and customs of the Northuldra. Although, to be fair, Honeymaren was usually the helpful one. Ryder barely knew some of those customs himself. And even when it wasn’t about helping Elsa get settled in the forest, the three of them still spent a good deal of their time together. She found that she could relax around them, more than with the rest of the tribe. Being apart from Anna was hard for Elsa, but the twins made it more bearable.

“So... you meditating again?” Honeymaren asked.

“Yes, I _was_ ,” said Elsa, emphasizing that last word, to make her annoyance clear. Ryder laughed, and for a moment Honeymaren’s face showed some regret. Elsa giggled. “I’m just messing with you,” she told the other woman.

“Oh... okay,” said Honeymaren, sounding a little less worried. “Ryder and I were going to check on the baby reindeer, you wanna come?”

“Sounds good,” Elsa told her. “I’ll just have to drop by the camp, first. Say I meet you there?”

“Okay,” Honeymaren agreed.

The twins watched as Elsa made her way down the path that led to the Northuldra campsite.

“So regal,” Honeymaren remarked. It was true, too. Even among the Northuldra, Elsa walked with airs of nobility. It served Maren as a stark reminder that the girl before her had spent most of her life in a castle, living as royalty. Even if Elsa _was_ Northuldra by blood, she was also a princess of Arendelle, and a former Queen. And let us not forget her being the Fifth Spirit of legend, the bridge between worlds. Put together, all of that made Elsa seem a little... untouchable. Like she was far too important to be regarded as just another girl in the tribe. And every time Maren was reminded of this fact, it made her feel just a little sad.

“Quit fawning,” said Ryder.

Honeymaren’s eyes grew wider, and her jaw dropped. “What?! No, I wasn’t!”

Ryder simply laughed, and started walking away from her, leaving Honeymaren in the clearing by herself.

It was nighttime, and everyone was back in the camp, as usual. The Northuldra often gathered around campfires by dusk, to eat and share stories. Honeymaren was in a group with Ryder and a few of their friends, and Ryder seemed to be telling them some sort of funny story involving Yelana and Lieutenant Mattias, but she wasn’t paying any attention. Maren had just spotted Elsa sitting alone against the canvas of her goathi, with a sad look in her eyes, and she felt compelled to go there talk to her.

“Um, excuse me,” she told her friends, and started walking leisurely toward the white-haired woman.

Elsa looked up as she heard Maren approach, and they exchanged amiable glances.

“Have you already eaten?” the brunette asked.

“I’m not really hungry,” Elsa explained, and just for a fleeting moment, Maren thought she could see anxiety in her friend’s eyes. How many times had she seen that look in Elsa’s face in the past few weeks? More than she cared for, certainly. Honeymaren was a reserved person, she didn’t like to pry, but she also felt that maybe Elsa could use someone to listen, to set her mind at ease. And maybe that person could be her.

“All right,” said Maren, proceeding to sit down on the forest floor beside Elsa. “I can tell there’s something bothering you. What is it?”

Elsa sighed. “It’s... nothing much, I think. There’s just this feeling I’ve been having as of late, as if nature has been trying to tell me something. But I don’t know what it means, so I don’t want to worry you or the tribe over this.”

“Is that why you’ve been meditating so often, lately?” Maren asked.

Elsa nodded. She remembered the images that came to her during meditation, just brief glimpses of scenes she didn’t recognize. “I don’t think it’s something bad,” she tried to explain. “But then, that’s just me hoping for the best. I have no idea what it is. It’s just... I’m worried. I don’t want anything to happen to this forest, or you, or...” _Or Anna_ , she realized. It was one of the biggest worries that had been plaguing her mind, ever since Elsa had come to live in the forest. The idea that something could happen to Anna while she was away.

“I can’t tell you if something will happen to the forest, or us,” said Honeymaren. “That’s something only Ahtohallan knows. But I don’t like seeing you getting all worried about it. I’m here to help, you know? In case you ever want to tell me how you’re feeling. You’re Northuldra, Elsa, you’re family. You don’t have to shut yourself from us.”

Elsa smirked. “Old habits die hard,” said the spirit. “Thank you, Honeymaren.” Elsa looked into her friend’s eyes, and Maren smiled, knowing that Elsa was being genuine.

At that moment, a salamander jumped out of a nearby campfire and scuttled to where Elsa was sitting, flames bursting off his back.

“Oh, hello, Bruni,” said Elsa, picking up the salamander in her hands.

“The fire spirit,” said Honeymaren, with reverence. “Why do you call him Bruni?”

“Anna gave him the nickname,” Elsa explained. “And I think it kind of fits him, anyway. What do you think, little guy?” The ice spirit conjured up a little flurry to hover above Bruni, and the salamander was more than glad to stick out his tongue to try and eat the falling snowflakes. Honeymaren observed them, entranced. There they were, two of the spirits of legend, just sitting right beside her in the Northuldra encampment. She found this entire situation completely magical.

Bruni stared into Honeymaren’s eyes, ignoring the falling snowflakes for a moment. The salamander licked his own right eye, then jumped to the floor and hurriedly ran up Honeymaren’s lap. Maren raised her hands and remained completely stiff, alarmed. Bruni circled around on her lap a couple of times, then laid down to rest. All the while, Elsa watched the interaction between those two with complete fascination.

“Well, would you look at that?” she said, enthralled.

“What?” asked Honeymaren, mildly nervous. “What’s going on?”

“Bruni doesn’t usually warm up to people, no pun intended,” Elsa proceeded to explain. “I mean, he likes me, and Olaf, and the other spirits of nature, but I’ve never seen him get close to humans before. This is something of a first.” Honeymaren whimpered. “Oh, relax, Maren,” Elsa added, noticing the tension in the other girl’s face, “ it’s nothing you should worry about.”

Honeymaren did as she was told, bringing her arms down to rest by her side.

“So I’m special?” she joked, speaking quietly so as not to disturb the spirit that rested on her lap.

“Seems so,” Elsa remarked. She looked at Honeymaren’s face, and their eyes met. Honeymaren’s eyes gleamed with the light of the burning campfires, and Elsa found herself caught in a trance. That girl was beautiful... like a princess, maybe? But not one of those boring real-life princesses like herself or her sister. Maren looked like the sort of princess you hear of in fairy-tales. Was that the first time Elsa was noticing that about her Northuldra friend? She wondered if the other people in the tribe ever saw Honeymaren the way she was seeing her, then.

“Elsa?” Honeymaren called, quietly, and the Arendellian princess realized, with a jolt, just how close her face was to the other girl’s. She pulled back, hastily.

That was all her doing, right? Honeymaren hadn’t moved at all, for fear of disturbing Bruni, so it had been Elsa who’d been inching closer. She got up to her feet. “Oh, um...” the spirit stuttered. “I— I’m going to go look, er... around the... forest? For a bit. Do some, y’know, spirity stuff. See you later.”

She started walking at a brisk pace toward the edge of the campsite.

“Elsa, wait!” Honeymaren called after her. “What do I do about this?!”

Elsa turned around to look. The brunette was pointing at the salamander on her lap.

“Bruni! Wake up, little guy! Time to go.”

Hearing Elsa’s call, the salamander raised his head, and flames once again started burning on his back. He jumped from Honeymaren’s lap and scuttled after Elsa.

Honeymaren let out a breath of relief.

“I thought she was going to kiss me,” she whispered to herself, angst lingering on the back of her mind.

Ryder chose that moment to approach Maren.

“Erm, sister... You know that your clothes are burning, right?” He pointed at Honeymaren’s lap. The girl looked down, and found that her tunic had caught on fire.

“Whoa!” she shouted, and raced to find some water to pour on herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have rewritten a good deal of this chapter, so if it's the second time you're reading and you're confused, this is why. I didn't change any of the major events, I just felt that the rambling about spirits was boring, and it's all going to be explained again in the rest of the story, anyway. I like this better the way it is now.


	2. Chapter 2

Elsa wandered aimlessly through the forest. What exactly had just happened? One moment she and Honeymaren had been chatting nonchalantly... then Bruni jumped on Maren’s lap, Elsa stared into her eyes, thinking Maren was beautiful, and the next thing she knows she was leaning into the other girl, almost as if to kiss.

Her heart was racing. She stopped walking somewhere near the territory of the earth giants, and rested her back against a tree. She couldn’t stop kicking herself. A kiss... was that really what she was going for, then? Had Elsa just tried to kiss her female friend? It can’t be, can it? Can it?

If it was true, though, that would explain why Elsa had never before been entertained with the idea of dating a prince, like her sister used to be. What if all this time what she really wanted was to date a princess instead? Or rather... a Northuldra woman? A smart, strong, enchanting Northuldra woman who looked absolutely dazzling by the light of the campfire.

Elsa closed her eyes, and bumped her head against the tree once.

“Crap, I’m gay,” she announced, to nobody in particular. Bruni leapt from the tree to one of Elsa’s shoulders, and snuggled against her neck. The fifth spirit remained there for a long time still, just thinking about all of that. She wondered what her sister would say when she found out.

Anna’s last letter to Elsa had included a promise to go visit the tribe later that month. The Northuldra weren’t just her sister’s people, they were her people as well. The fact that she was now Queen of Arendelle did not change in the least how much she longed to learn all about their mother’s culture. Elsa was lucky, in a way. She was there, learning more and more about the Northuldra every day. Compared to her, Anna still knew so little. She had to catch up.

It was a long journey up North. Anna had left Mattias in charge of the kingdom during her absence. After the fog was lifted, months before, Anna had tried to promote Mattias to general, or at least captain of the Arendellian army. When the old man declined, saying he was now too old to serve in the military, she offered him a position as her advisor. Mattias had proven his loyalty to Arendelle many times over, and Anna considered him one of the most trustworthy people in the kingdom, and she knew he would be able to make the right decisions during the time she was away.

It must be noted that she never even considered Kristoff for the job. Despite how much Anna loved her fiancée, when it came to managing a kingdom, Mattias was the obvious choice. And, besides, that meant Kristoff could come with her to the North, to visit her sister. It was a win-win situation.

On the day of their departure, Anna sent Elsa a letter through Gale, the wind spirit, to let her know they were coming, and set off with Kristoff, Olaf and Sven.

Honeymaren was a bit off her game at the moment. She was standing on a rowboat with Ryder, fishing in the waters of the fjord, but that was already the second time she’d let the fish slip away, unable to keep a steady grip on the fishing net.

“Geez, pay attention, Maren!” her brother scolded her. Honeymaren apologized, and replaced the net in the water. “Seriously, though, what’s wrong with you today?”

Ryder had a point. Something was wrong with Honeymaren at the moment. But she didn’t know what it was, exactly. She had been like this ever since her talk with Elsa, a couple of days before.

That night, Honeymaren had lain awake in bed for hours, just reliving her moments with Elsa in her head. She wanted to understand what was going on in the other girl’s head, but all she managed was to give herself a headache from worrying too much.

The ice spirit was still a complete mystery to her.

What were her feelings for Elsa?

Well, friendship, of course. Ever since the Arendellian princess came to live with them, she had spent a long time together with Honeymaren. First, as Maren served as Elsa’s guide to the forest and the tribe’s customs, then, later, simply as a dear friend. Maren also felt admiration for Elsa. Not only was Elsa the fifth spirit of legend, but she and her sister Anna had managed to save the forest, clear the fog and bring back the sky. What’s not to admire?

But was that really all she felt?

No. That _had_ to be all. Honeymaren would never allow her feelings for Elsa to be anything more than those of a friend. It had nothing to do with her being a woman, of course. Maren grew up with Ryder, who was gay himself, and she’d never been fazed by the idea of one day dating a girl. The Northuldra, in general, had nothing against couples of the same gender, not like some of the people in Arendelle had, or so she’d heard.

The problem was that Elsa was... well, Elsa. Y’know, ice spirit, bridge between worlds, former Queen of Arendelle. She wasn’t someone a plain forest girl like Honeymaren could ever dream of being together with.

And yet... there was that night. Elsa’s face had been so close to hers. It set her heart racing. Just a little more, and they could have kissed. Maren’s chest ached with the memory. Among the things that had kept her awake, that night, was her imagination, as she pictured what a kiss with Elsa would be like, and what her touch on Maren’s skin would be like.

Honeymaren sighed. Who was she kidding? She had completely fallen for the girl.

Was that even allowed? I mean, Elsa was the first spirit to ever live among her people. What would the elders think of Honeymaren’s desires? What would Yelana say, if she knew Honeymaren was in love with the fifth spirit?

“Nothing,” Maren realized. She would not say anything, because Maren wasn’t going to tell anyone. That one-sided love had no future, anyway, so all she could do was to outgrow her absurd crush. She would lock away her feelings forever. Conceal, don’t feel, and don’t let anyone know. Not even Ryder would know.

“Ouch!” Honeymaren yelped. She had just cut the tip of her finger with a fishing hook.

“And you’re still not paying attention,” Ryder reproached her. He turned around to look at his sister. “Give it here,” he said, gesturing at her hand. Blood was dripping to the wooden boards below them.

Honeymaren refused help. “I got this,” she told him, and quickly patched it up with some cloth and string.

“Okay, I’ve had enough,” said Ryder. “You’re going to tell me what’s wrong, and you’re going to do it now. Right now. So come on, sis, out with it.”

Honeymaren scoffed. “You wouldn’t understand,” said the woman.

“Thinking about Elsa?” Ryder asked.

Maren furrowed her brow, confused.

“How...?” she asked, simply.

“Bulls-eye,” said Ryder.

“But... I never told you anything.”

“You didn’t have to, t’s obvious,” Ryder’s comment outraged Maren, but the man only smirked. “Oh, come on, sis, you’re not exactly subtle. Everyone in the tribe knows you have a crush on Elsa. I’m pretty sure even Yelana knows.”

Honeymaren’s eyes grew wider. Yelana knew?! Hah! Conceal my ass, so much for keeping it a secret. But still... if everyone in the tribe knew, then that meant...

“Does Elsa know?”

“If she does,” Ryder began to say, dragging a fishnet into the boat, “she hasn’t let on.”

Honeymaren buried her face in her hands, feeling miserable. Ryder, in turn, felt that he said something he should not. He sighed. Maren had just gone from aloof to recluse. Looks like he’d have to fish on his own for the rest of the day.

“Ry, what do I do?” Maren asked, sounding bleak.

“What else can you do, sis? You confess.”

“I can’t!” she protested. Maren raised her eyes to look at the fjord. “She’s the fifth spirit.”

“She’s also a woman, Maren. Beautiful, your age, not to mention single. She’s even Northuldra herself, you wouldn’t even be dating someone from outside the tribe. I don’t think anyone would oppose it.”

“But what if she rejects me?”

“Oh, she probably will,” said Ryder, not mincing his words.

Honeymaren laughed, scornfully. “You know, that’s not making me feel any better.”

Ryder dropped the net he was working on, and stared into his sister’s eyes.

“Honeymaren, listen to me. Elsa probably knows you like her, already. If she still hasn’t said anything about it, that means she’s waiting for you to make a first move. So yeah, maybe your chances aren’t great, but if you’re going to get shot down sooner or later, wouldn’t you rather tell her already and get this over with? The sooner you do it, the faster you can move on and go back to helping me with the fish.”

That... was surprisingly good advice, coming from Ryder.

Honeymaren had no illusions about this. She knew that she didn’t — and would never — have a chance with the fifth spirit. She had known that all along. So if that was the case, telling Elsa about her feelings just might help her get over them.

“Alright,” she said to her brother, “I’m going to tell her.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've got a couple more chapters down in paper, will typeset and upload them today, probably.


	3. Chapter 3

Honeymaren had planned on telling Elsa her feelings that same night, after dinner. She was not expecting Elsa’s sister to drop by for a visit, or for Yelana to decide to turn dinner into a celebration for their guests. Which meant Elsa remained glued to her sister and friends for the entire night, and Maren felt that it would be wrong to drag her away from them, even if just for a bit.

Elsa loved to see how dearly the Northuldra thought of her sister. Anna was one of them, even if they had only just met, a few months prior. She’d been born and raised in Arendelle, and knew almost nothing of Northuldra culture, but they still treated her as family.

The celebration for Anna’s arrival was as much fun as any Arendellian party. There were food, drinks, music and stories by the bonfire. Kristoff spent most of the time exchanging reindeer tales with Ryder, while Elsa was more than glad to let Anna and Olaf update her on every little thing that had changed in the kingdom since the last time she’d been there — even if the last time happened to have been just a fortnight earlier. Elsa, in turn, wanted to tell Anna all of the things she’d been learning from the people of the sun, or from Ahtohallan. She even told Anna the same things about spirits that she’d told Honeymaren, earlier that week.

Speaking of Maren, Elsa didn’t see much of the girl that night. She was in the campsite with everyone, of course, but always somewhere else away from Elsa and her friends. That was a shame, really. Elsa knew that many of the stories Anna was telling her would also be of interest to Maren. And most of Elsa’s stories involved Maren at some point, so the girl could have joined in on Elsa’s stories about the forest.

But above all that, the thing is that ever since the night they’d almost kissed, Elsa had been wanting to get closer to Maren. As someone who had grown up without a single friend, Elsa deeply valued the connections she was beginning to make with other people now. After Anna, Honeymaren had become Elsa’s closest friend, and the spirit missed her friend just then.

Besides, if anything like the other night happened again, and Elsa got to kiss Honeymaren for real, she had a feeling she might actually enjoy it.

“You look forlorn,” Anna pointed out. Ryder and Kristoff had left them to check in on baby reindeer, and Olaf was playing with the tribe’s children, leaving Elsa and Anna some time alone with each other.

“Just thinking about someone,” Elsa admitted, staring into the bonfire.

“Someone...” said Anna, pensively. “You’re not going to tell me you have a romantic interest, are you?” Anna raised her eyebrows, distrustful, but then dismissed the thought as absurd. “Nah,” said the Queen, laughing it off, “you’re Elsa, after all.”

“Actually, sis,” said Elsa, smiling, “you might have it right, this time.”

For a moment, Anna thought she’d misheard it. But the expression in Elsa’s face left no doubt about it. Anna’s eyes grew wider, and her mouth hung open. “Noooo...” she said, ominously, before letting out a squeal of delight. “Elsa! Oh, goodness, Elsa! I can’t believe it!”

Elsa chuckled. “All right, all right, calm down.”

“Who is it?” Anna demanded, anxiously.

“Promise you won’t judge me?” Elsa asked. She didn’t have to, really. Elsa was certain that Anna would accept her, no matter what. This is Anna we’re talking about, Elsa’s most important person in the world. They’d been through so much together, there was no way something small like this would ruffle her sister.

“I’ll judge if it’s Hans,” said Anna, playfully. “Or a reindeer.”

“Yuck, Anna, don’t say that,” Elsa complained, and the two sisters laughed together. Then Anna took her sister’s hand in hers, holding it to comfort the other girl.

“You know I would never judge you, sis,” Anna told her, and Elsa smiled, gratefully.

“All right,” she said.

Elsa leaned closer and whispered something in Anna’s ear. Then she drew back, and watched as comprehension dawned on her sister’s face.

“Wow...” said Anna, staring into the bonfire. “Wow,” she repeated. “Elsa, this... makes so much sense. I... wow...”

Elsa chuckled nervously, worried she might have broken her sister.

“So... are you okay with that?” she asked. “You don’t mind?”

“Mind?” Anna retorted, incredulously. “Elsa, I love this! My big sister finally has feelings for someone, and this is _so much better_ than what I’ve always imagined. Elsa, I...” Anna turned her head to look into her sister’s eyes, and they exchanged a deep stare full of meaning. “I love you, sis.”

“Me too,” said Elsa, and a single teardrop ran down the spirit’s face, freezing as it fell to the ground. Elsa opened her arms, and Anna jumped into them. They hugged each other tightly, and just then Elsa thought that Olaf was completely right about warm hugs. That was the best feeling in the world.

“Honeymaren’s a wonderful person,” Anna told her, unable to keep herself from crying anymore. “You’ll be perfect together.”

“Anna please,” Elsa pulled back and tried to wipe her sister’s tears. “We don’t even know if she likes me back.”

“How can anyone not like you, Elsa?”

Elsa smirked. “You know what I mean.” They hugged each other again, briefly. When they parted, Anna grabbed Elsa’s hand, and held it as if she had no intention of ever letting go.

“I can’t believe I’ve never noticed,” said Anna. “With the way you always reacted to the idea of romance with boys, it was so obvious. I feel like a horrible sister for not having realized this sooner.”

“Don’t beat yourself,” said Elsa, in a reassuring manner. “I had no idea myself, until very recently... Oh, and... by the way, please don’t tell Kristoff and Olaf just yet. I don’t want them making a fuss over this. At least wait until I talk to Honeymaren properly.”

“I won’t tell anyone,” Anna proclaimed, radiating honesty. “You can take your time, just... tell them when you feel ready. And I’ll be here with you all the time, no matter what happens. I promise you.”

“I believe you, sis.”

The skies were clear by sunrise, the next day. Anna slept soundly on Elsa’s bed, while the spirit had chosen to sleep on a hammock she’d set up inside her goathi. Kristoff, unfortunately, had to sleep with Olaf and Sven in the reindeers’ shed, but something told Elsa he might not have minded it all that much.

It was only the first hours of dawn, but Elsa found herself wide awake, so she left the goathi to take a stroll outside. She didn’t wake Anna up. Knowing her sister, Anna would probably sleep until noon, if left undisturbed, and Elsa knew she would be back by then.

Bruni and Gale found Elsa as she was about to leave, and the woman promptly invited the other spirits to tag along for a stroll. She took a trail that led downhill into the fjord. That part of the forest was breathtakingly beautiful, no matter how often she went there.

Elsa had just reached the water’s edge when she heard a voice, singing a familiar song into the wind.

“The siren’s call...” she whispered, in realization. She thought of Ahtohallan, and of the way it had called to her through that song. Was it all happening again?

There it was again. Elsa turned toward it, but... wait...

That wasn’t coming from Ahtohallan.

It wasn’t her mother’s voice, either.

Someone else was singing the siren’s song. Someone who was right there in the forest with her. But who? And why?

Elsa heard the verse once again. This time, she didn’t waste a second, and rushed through the forest as fast as she could , looking for the owner of that voice. She didn’t dare lose it. She couldn’t.

At last, the ice spirit arrived at the source of the song. It was a clearing, not far from the water’s edge, and the one on the center of it was...

“Honeymaren?” Elsa called, stunned.

The brunette stopped singing. “Oh, hey Elsa,” said Honeymaren, cheerfully. “Whatcha doing out here?”

Elsa could barely speak.

“You... were singing?”

“Um, yeah,” Honeymaren admitted. She chuckled. Elsa really was stating the obvious here.

Elsa shook her head. “No, what I mean is... that song you were singing... how do you know it?”

“The forest sang it to me,” said the other girl.

“The forest?” Elsa asked, now more confused than ever.

Maren nodded. “I’ve heard it some times, over the past year,” she explained. “Whenever a North wind blew through the fjord, I could hear it, carried in the breeze.”

 _A North wind_ , thought Elsa, pensively.

“Tell me,” said the ice spirit. “Have you heard it again after the fog was lifted?”

The brunette considered Elsa’s words for a moment. “No,” she said, finally. “I haven’t.”

Elsa fell to her knees. Honeymaren, alarmed, ran over to the spirit, calling her name.

“Elsa, are you okay?” she asked, kneeling to look at the other girl’s face, and holding both of her shoulders as if to shake her back to reality.

“I’m fine,” said the spirit, placing one hand over Honeymaren’s arm, to reassure her. “I just... think I would like to sit down for a little bit.”


	4. Chapter 4

“That song... it’s my mother’s.”

Elsa and Honeymaren were sitting together by the water’s edge. The earth giants watched them from afar, without much interest. Elsa seemed distressed, and, noticing that, Honeymaren committed to listening intently. She wanted to understand what had thrown off Elsa so much, and why that song seemed so important for her.

“I first heard it about a year ago,” Elsa continued, “carried by the North wind all the way down to my old home, in Arendelle. It was just a faint whisper, at first, but as my powers continued to grow, so did the voice. It became stronger, louder, harder to ignore. When I woke up the spirits, I had been reacting to the voice. And it was that voice that first guided me into this forest.”

“The voice?” Honeymaren asked. “You mean your mother’s voice?”

Elsa nodded.

“Ahtohallan is a place of memory,” she explained. “My mother lives in its waters, just like everyone else. You said earlier that the forest sang this song to you, but it didn’t. Ahtohallan was echoing the memory of my mother’s song through the North wind. It was calling me.”

“So the song I heard... that was Ahtohallan calling you?”

“Yes,” Elsa confirmed. “Except... this doesn’t make sense. Because back then, I was the only one who could hear the voice. Well, Bruni heard it too, to be honest. But nobody else human, not even my sister. So why would you have... No, rather, do you know if anyone else in the tribe has heard this too?”

“Well, actually...” said Honeymaren, hesitantly, “I haven’t really asked around about it, much. I don’t know... Oh, but I know Ryder didn’t. He’d have told me if he did. And I’m guessing Yelana would have talked to the tribe about it if she’d heard something like that, so I’m assuming she hasn’t, either.”

“Why didn’t you tell anyone?” Elsa asked.

“I tend to keep to myself,” Honeymaren explained. “Besides, there’s a lot of odd stuff going on in this forest all the time. It’s not like a voice in the wind is too big of a novel occurrence, you know?”

As if to prove Honeymaren right, the moss from a few nearby stones simply jumped off of them and scurried across the floor to climb up a large tree, embracing its trunk in rich green.

“Makes sense,” Elsa admitted. “But I still don’t know why you were able to hear it, when nobody else was.”

“Only Ahtohallan knows,” Honeymaren proclaimed, almost out of habit.

“Perhaps I should go there and ask her,” Elsa pointed out, and the other girl chuckled.

“Perhaps,” Honeymaren agreed.

They remained in silence for a while, watching the waters stream calmly down the river. When they eventually talked, it was both at the same time.

“So, Elsa,” said one.

“Honeymaren, listen,” said the other.

The both laughed, embarrassed.

“You first,” Elsa offered.

“Right,” said Honeymaren. But just as she began to speak, Maren felt all her courage leaving her. This was hard. “Do you think winter might be upon us?” she asked, and silently cursed herself. _You idiot_ , she thought, _that isn’t what you want to ask her_.

“I don’t know,” was Elsa’s response. “You’ve lived here a lot longer than I have. You tell me.”

“Winter isn’t always easy on our people,” Maren kept saying, while internally admitting defeat. “Maybe we should start preparing for it, already.”

Elsa nodded in agreement. Honeymaren was a prudent girl. She would make a great leader, one day, if she ever came to succeed Yelana.

“Anyway, now you,” said Maren.

“Hmm... let’s see...” said Elsa, wondering about what she needed to say. So she had romantic feelings for Honeymaren, all right, but what was it that the ice spirit wanted from her Northuldra friend, after all?

A kiss would be nice. After the events of that other night, Elsa was pretty sure she would enjoy that. Oh, but she would be fine without one, too.

To date? To become lovers? Those ideas still sounded a bit remote to Elsa, like daydreams. She wasn’t even sure if she’d want to get into a serious relationship right off the bat, like this. There was no need to rush things. It would happen, eventually, if they ever felt that it was the next right thing for them. And even if they were to remain as just friends, that was already plenty for Elsa. She had learned to cherish those sorts of relationships, now that she didn’t have to shut herself off from everyone anymore.

No. What Elsa truly wanted from Honeymaren was simply to get to know her better. She felt there was no need to decide on whether to do that as lovers or friends, not yet.

A salty breeze blew through the fjord, and she suddenly knew what to tell her friend.

“Honeymaren, won’t you come visit Arendelle with me, one of these days?”

They were back at the campsite, where Elsa was teaching Anna and Kristoff about the Northuldra families, by showing them the different symbols the tribe wore on their clothes. A few meters away from there, the Nattura twins watched, downcast.

Ryder sighed.

“At least _your_ crush is single,” he told Honeymaren.

“It’s not like my chances are any better than yours, Ry,” Honeymaren argued.

But truth be told, Maren wasn’t entirely certain of that, anymore. The memories of that morning came back to her: Elsa sitting by the river with the fire spirit in her hands, asking Maren to go visit Arendelle with her. Elsa telling her that she considered Maren her closest friend in the tribe, and that she wanted to get to know her better. Elsa smiling at her with such kind eyes, then biting her lower lip in a way that both fascinated and excited Maren, as if daring her to steal a kiss from the spirit.

Maren’s chest ached. It was the little things: they made her feel hopeful, despite her better judgment. It made her wonder... “what if?”

She heard laughter, and saw that Elsa was giggling at some joke Kristoff had told her. Suddenly she wished it could have been her there instead, making Elsa laugh.

“I should have kissed her,” thought Maren, looking back at that night by the campfire. But then a dreadful thought occurred to her. What if Elsa turned away? What if she rejected Maren, or felt disgusted by the kiss? Maren thought that this would be much worse than plain unrequited love. Maybe it was better that they hadn’t kissed, after all.

Ryder nudged her, and Maren put her worries aside. She looked around, and saw that Elsa was walking toward them.

“Ry, could you fetch me some more firewood?” Maren asked, carefully loud enough for Elsa to hear it too.

“I’m on it,” said Ryder, and he winked at her before striding away.

“Maren?” Elsa called.

“Oh, Elsa, hi,” said Honeymaren, trying to sound calm and collected, despite the storm swirling inside her chest.

“I was just talking to my sister, and... Anna and the others are going back to Arendelle the day after tomorrow. I was thinking of tagging along for the journey. You wanna come?”

Honeymaren hesitated. Two days? That soon? But... the tribe needed her. She couldn’t just go on vacation all of a sudden. Especially not now that they were preparing for winter.

Behind Elsa, Ryder was giving his sister a thumbs-up, while mouthing the word “go!”.

“Um, sure,” said Honeymaren, on a whim. Wait, what? No! She had meant to decline!

Elsa beamed. “Great!” she said, excitedly. “I’ll let them know you’re coming.”

This wasn’t fair. How was Maren supposed to say “no” to that huge smile? And after seeing just how happy it had made Elsa to know she was coming with them... well, Maren guessed this meant that in two days she’d be going to Arendelle.


	5. Chapter 5

Anna was surprisingly good with children. Though Elsa’s ice powers were still pretty popular, it was soon found out that nobody could tell fairy-tales as well as her sister did. It stood to reason. The Arendellian princesses had had a very boring upbringing, growing up behind closed doors. Through the years, Anna must have read every single children’s book in her parents’ library at least a dozen times over.

The stories about the Nøkk seemed to be some of Anna’s favorites. Being a personal friend of the water spirit, Elsa knew at least half of those stories to be pure fiction, yet she wasn’t going to be so cruel as to spoil the children’s fun with... ugh, facts.

Sitting beside Elsa, Yelana chuckled. “They love your sister,” she remarked. Anna was a couple of meters away from then, sitting on the forest floor and completely surrounded by children. As she narrated, she would imitate the voice of the characters: a low-pitched growl for Grand Pabbie and the other trolls, a terrifying growl for the Nattmara, among others. The children would laugh or scream from time to time, completely entranced by the stories.

“Seems so,” Elsa admitted.

“Tell me, Elsa, do you take after your father?”

What an odd question! “Excuse me?” said Elsa.

“You and your sister look a lot alike,” Yelana explained, “but there are some differences. A few facial features and, well, the hair, obviously.”

“Oh, um...” Elsa stuttered, embarrassed. “The... hair isn’t really a family trait that I can tell. I always assumed it was the whole ‘being born with ice powers’ thing, you know? Like when I hit my sister with ice by accident, and her hair started to turn white. I suppose ice magic and white hair go together, for some reason.”

“Interesting,” said Yelana, nodding.

They turned their eyes back to Anna and the children. She was now playing the part of Marshmallow, running after herself, Kristoff and Olaf in the North Mountain. The children screeched in delight from Anna’s impersonation of the ice golem.

“She is the spitting image of Iduna, isn’t she?”

Elsa nodded. When Anna stood next to the paintings in the castle hall, you almost couldn’t tell one from the other, and—

“Wait, you knew my mother?!” Elsa asked Yelana, baffled. How come had she never heard of this, before?

“Know her?” said Yelana, sounding amused. “Dear child, I _raised_ Iduna.” Elsa’s heart raced after hearing the older woman’s words. “Well, not alone, of course,” Yelana clarified, “but I was good friends with your grandmother, so I always helped them however I could.”

“Can you tell me more about her?” asked Elsa, trembling with excitement. “What was she like?”

Yelana looked pensive.

“Iduna was... a brat, mostly. She was always getting her sister Inga into trouble.”

Elsa almost fell from the log she’d been sitting on. “My mother had a sister?!” she asked.

“She had three,” said Yelana, and Elsa’s jaw dropped.

“W– where are they?” she asked, stuttering from the shock of that revelation. “Are they here?! Can I meet them?!”

Yelana chuckled at the girl’s euphoria.

“Calm down, child,” she told Elsa. “I’m afraid Inga passed away a long time ago, and Ulla, the eldest, disappeared the same day your mother did, when the fog came. We always assumed Iduna and Ulla had left the forest together. But from what you’ve told us, though, that was probably not true...” Yelana paused for a moment. Those seemed to be painful memories for her. “You could meet Anja, though. She lives with her husband in another tribe, east of here. I’m sure she will appreciate the visit. I should tell you, however, that Anja was far too young when Iduna left us, so she probably won’t remember your mother.

“We’ll go,” said Elsa, decisively. “Tomorrow, before we all leave for Arendelle, I’ll go there with Anna.”

Yelana nodded appreciatively. “You should have Honeymaren guide you,” she remarked. “She knows the forest better than anyone.”

“I’ll ask her,” said Elsa.

They resumed watching Anna’s storytelling antics. She was performing an evil witch. The children screamed again.

“Family,” Elsa whispered to herself.

It was early morning: truly a terrible time of the day to be awake, by Anna’s standards. That’s not to say she hadn’t been thrilled when Elsa told her about Queen Iduna’s sisters, the night before. But now that dawn had broken and she was being forced to travel through the woods for what she could swear was a pocket-sized version of eternity, Anna’s excitement wasn’t what it had once been.

“Can’t we go after lunch, maybe?” she asked the others, probably for the third or fourth time that morning.

“We must keep going now, or we won’t be back in time for your departure for Arendelle,” Honeymaren patiently explained again.

“ _Our_ departure,” Elsa corrected her, and Honeymaren felt her cheeks flush slightly. Right. She did say she would be joining them, didn’t she?

“I don’t know,” Anna complained again, barely awake. “Visiting this early sounds rude to me.”

“It won’t be early by the time we arrive there,” Honeymaren explained, earning a groan of dismay from the younger girl. “Besides, why would it be rude to visit early?” she asked. “Is this an Arendellian thing?”

“No, just an Anna thing,” Elsa retorted.

Anna stuck her tongue out at Elsa, who chuckled.

Anja’s tribe was a long way across the forest. After departing from Arenfjord, the three women crossed the Reindeer Grounds, the Forest of Fire (named after the bright red color of the canopy of trees), the Tumbling River and the Eastern Orchards, arriving at a portion of the forest which seemed to have drier land, and fewer vegetation, than the places they’d just been through.

“We’re almost at the edge of the forest,” Honeymaren announced. She had really been playing the part of a tour guide for the other girls. After all, not even Elsa had been to this part of the forest before then. “The mist would begin just after that hill over there,” Maren pointed. After so many years constrained by the mist, it still excited her when she was able to see the things that laid beyond its former borders. Which, in this case, was just empty grasslands, but still.

“Why live so far from each other?” Elsa inquired. “If the Northuldra are all the same people, shouldn’t you stick together? Strength in numbers, and all that.”

“It’s the way it’s always been,” Honeymaren explained. “We live according to nature. Do all packs of wolves hunt together? Do all wild reindeer gather in a single group?”

Elsa considered those words for a moment. It seemed to be a very different philosophy from the one of cities and kingdoms, such as Arendelle.

“Are we there yet?” Anna asked, but immediately regretted doing so, because, as a matter of fact, they _were_ there yet, and something was not right.

Beyond the nearest hill, Anna could see that a large portion of the land had been consumed by fire. There were burnt tree trunks here and there, and the charred remains of many a goathi. There were no people and no animals, the place was deserted, except for them.

Honeymaren walked from one ruined structure to the next, taking in the details of that devastation.

“They’re empty,” she announced. “I don’t think anyone was here when the fire began. There’s another encampment North of here, Anja and the others are probably there.”

“What do you think happened here?” Elsa asked, looking saddened. She placed a hand on the charred structure of what had once been a goathi, and black soot smeared her fingers.

“I’m not sure,” said Maren. “It was a pretty big fire. I suppose lightning could have done it. It’s not unheard of.”

As soon as Maren had finished saying it, the three women heard a noise coming from the thicker woods west of the ruined campsite. Honeymaren was the first to react, pointing her staff at the direction of the noise, in a threatening manner. Elsa understood that this meant there could be danger, and so she readied herself in case she had to cast blasts of ice magic against their foe. As for Anna, she drew a shortsword from a hidden scabbard inside her clothes.

“A sword?!” Elsa exclaimed, staring at her sister, perplexed. “When did you get a sword?”

Anna hesitated. “I’ve been, uh... taking some lessons,” she admitted.

“And you never told me that?!” Elsa sounded hurt. She was proud of her sister for deciding to learn some self-defense, but it bothered her that Anna had decided to keep it a secret from her sister.

“Um, guys?” Honeymaren interrupted, “I think we’ve got a bit of a problem here.”

The siblings turned their eyes back to the edge of the campsite, and immediately spotted the “problem” Maren had spoken of.

It was a wolf. And yet, it was unlike any of the wolves Anna and Elsa had seen in the forests of Arendelle. This one had a flaming auburn coat, ranging in hue from bright golden yellow to deep ruby, rusty brown and charcoal. It reminded Anna of the bonfire in the Northuldra camp, and of the blacksmith’s forge back in Arendelle.

The wolf bared its teeth at the visitors, growled, and soon more wolves appeared, four in total.

They took careful steps toward the girls. Elsa panicked, and sent a blast of ice aimed at the wolf nearest to her — but she had gotten ahead of herself: the wolf easily leaped over the ice stalactites that rose in front of it, and landed just a short distance away from the fifth spirit. From that moment on, it was chaos. Each of the remaining wolves picked a target and dashed toward them faster than the eye could follow.

By the time she realized what was going on, it had been almost too late. Anna only narrowly managed to dodge the wolf after it jumped for her throat. The girl had trained with Tuva, the blacksmith, and sparred with Kai, Mattias and several of the soldiers from the Arendellian guard, but this was another kind of fight entirely. For one thing, while the girl only had a sword to fight with, the wolf had four sets of deadly claws and an even deadlier set of teeth. Anna could disarm ruffians and thugs, but you can’t really disarm a wolf. And what’s worse, it moved with such haste that Anna found it impossible to predict its moves. In the time it took for her to recompose after an attack, the wolf was already on top of her one more time, claws scratching and fangs biting in a vicious attempt to reach her throat.

Honeymaren was having more luck. She had fought wolves before, to protect her tribe. The Northuldra staff she wielded could double as a spear or a mace if need arose, and it offered some range advantage that Anna’s shortsword lacked. She hit the wolf sideways as it jumped, casting it aside. It gave her just enough time to notice a very strange thing about their surroundings: with every step that the wolf took, the ground under its feet burned and smoked, leaving behind a trail of embers and soot.

“I think I found out what caused the fire in this place,” she announced, fending off yet another of the wolf’s assaults.

“You think?!” exclaimed Elsa, exasperated. She had noticed it too, and had reached the same conclusion, but found out there were much more pressing matters at hand. Even with her ice powers, she was the one who was worse off out of the three, because fighting two wolves at once is many times harder than fighting one. She repeatedly shot blasts of ice at them, but never hit more than just the ground below, as the wolfs leapt out of the way just in time — and often toward her, too. It was taking all of the woman’s skill just to keep herself alive.

Honeymaren watched Elsa fighting for a moment, amazed, but it was a moment she could not afford, and it was all it took for the girl to go down. The wolf’s claws drew blood from her skin, connecting with the side of her face and pushing her fiercely against a boulder that rested nearby. The staff flew from her hands, landing to her right and out of reach. At that point, neither Anna nor Elsa had noticed what was happening to Maren: they were both busy dealing with problems of their own. What happened was that Maren stood with her back against the boulder, unarmed, as the wolf closed in on her slowly, one step at a time. Its eyes were locked with Maren’s in a deadly glare. She wanted to scream, but the voice got stuck in her throat and wouldn’t come out. Her heart was beating faster than ever.

 _So this is how people feel when they’re about to die?_ thought the Northuldra woman.

The wolf reached even closer, and sniffed Honeymaren. Once. Twice. Then it... licked the girl’s face.

“What?!” whispered Maren, stunned. She’d lifted a hand protectively over her face. And instead of pouncing on her, such as would be, you know, normal wolf behavior, it pressed it’s forehead against the girl’s open palm instead, as if asking for a head-pat. Honeymaren found herself unable to move, and stupefied by what that creature was doing.

The wolf then retreated a couple of steps, raised its head, and howled. The three other wolves in the campsite stopped attacking Anna and Elsa, and immediately dashed to the one that was calling them.

“Honeymaren!!” Elsa screamed desperately. The ice spirit raised her hands, ready to strike, when Maren’s eyes met hers and she yelled a plea:

“Elsa, wait! Stop fighting!”

_What?! Why?!_

Elsa was perplexed. Honeymaren was being surrounded by wolves, and very likely in mortal danger, why would she ask her to wait?

But she did as she was told, nonetheless. She might have been the fifth spirit, but she was still a newcomer to the forest and its secrets. Whereas Honeymaren was born inside them. If Maren wanted Elsa to stand still, the ice spirit would trust the other girl’s judgment.

Honeymaren extended her hand toward the nearest wolf, the one that had howled earlier. It once again pressed its forehead against her hand. She caressed it, the same way she’d have done to a reindeer. The other three wolves simply stopped and sat in a circle around the girl.

It was about then that another wolf howled, from somewhere in the distance, among the trees. The four wolves in the destroyed campsite raised their heads, listening attentively, before they all took off together, running back into the woods.

Honeymaren let out a breath of relief.

“What... was that?” Anna asked, befuddled. “How did you do that?”

“I didn’t,” said Honeymaren, slowly getting up on her feet. Her legs trembled, and she had to support herself on the boulder in order to stand up straight. She couldn’t explain to Anna what had just happened, because she didn’t understand it herself. Honeymaren had stared death in the eyes and it _licked_ her.

Around them, patches of the forest floor burned with the embers left behind by the wolves’ paws. It didn’t look like they’d set off another fire — or else the wolves could have burned the entire forest by then —, but Elsa still cast small patches of snow on top of each footprint, just to be on the safe side. Then she walked up to Honeymaren. She had a nasty claw mark running from her right earlobe up to halfway across her cheek. Fortunately, though, the cuts didn’t seem to run too deep, and not a lot of blood was spilling from them.

“Poor you,” said Elsa, before placing a hand on top of the wound. Honeymaren flinched a little, but remained still. Elsa’s touch went from warm to icy cold, and Honeymaren realized Elsa was using her powers to constrict the blood flow, the same way the Northuldra healers treated open wounds by placing ice or bags of cold water on them.

“There, this should help,” said Elsa, drawing her hand back. A small, almost imperceptible coating of frost remained on top of the cuts.

Anna cleared her throat and called. “Heeey,” said the girl, pointing at her own wounds. Elsa nodded, and walked up to Anna, giving her the same treatment as she’d just given Honeymaren.

“So... is this some everyday occurrence for you forest people?” Anna asked, gesturing to make sure Elsa knew that Anna was calling her a “forest people” too, just to spite her. It would at least lighten up the atmosphere a little.

“I’ve never seen wolves like these,” said Honeymaren, walking up to where her staff had fallen. The bits of it that had made contact with the wolf’s fur seemed slightly charred. Her hand, the one she’d caressed the wolf with, seemed unharmed, nonetheless.

“What was that thing they were doing just now?” Anna questioned further. “Why did they suddenly stop attacking us?”

“I don’t know,” Honeymaren admitted. “But I don’t want to stick around to find out. Anna, Elsa, I’m going to take you back to the Tumbling River. If you keep going upstream, it will take you to the Land of the Earth Giants. Wolves don’t hunt there, they’re scared of the giants. Once you get there, keep going west and you’ll reach the fjord. It’s a longer journey, but at least you’ll be safe.”

Anna groaned at the mention of a “longer journey”.

“What about you?” Elsa asked, not hiding her concern.

“I need to warn Anja’s tribe, so they don’t come back here,” Honeymaren explained. “You two make sure Yelana knows about those fire wolves, too, just in case. I don’t think they’d hunt as far as the fjord, but you can never be too cautious. I’ll meet you two back at the tribe before sunset.”

“What if you don’t return?” Anna inquired.

Honeymaren smirked. “I’ve never not returned,” she said, cheekily.

“Are you sure you’ll be all right on your own?” Elsa asked.

“No,” said Honeymaren, “But I know the forest better than you, and I can move around faster if I’m on my own. It will be safest this way.”

“All right,” Elsa conceded. “But be careful. And please come back safely.”

Anna and Elsa were walking west through the Land of the Earth Giants, as Honeymaren instructed them.

“She’s so stuck up,” Anna complained, at some point. “‘I’ve never not returned,’ well, of course, miss Obvious, until the day that you don’t!”

“Could you please not talk as if Maren is just about to die?” Elsa demanded.

Anna stifled a laugh. “Okay, okay, sorry. But don’t worry, sis, your girlfriend is fine. Didn’t you hear? She knows the forest better than anyone. She must be some sort of forest goddess or something.”

Elsa furrowed her brow, feeling troubled, and turned around to look at her sister. The expression on Anna’s face suggested she was angry.

“Is that sarcasm?” Elsa asked.

“What? Me? Sarcasm? Noooo, why would you say that?”

“Okay, that’s definitely sarcasm,” the spirit concluded, and resumed walking. “Are you angry at Maren or something? Wait... you’re not jealous, are you?”

“I’m not jealous, there’s no reason to be jealous,” said Anna, unconvincingly. “Except for the fact that you rushed to tend to her wounds the minute the fight was over and completely ignored me, even though I was standing _right beside you_. But nobody would get jealous over _that_ , right?”

Elsa stopped walking, outraged.

“Anna!” she snapped.

“What? I’m your _sister_ ,” Anna snapped back. “I’ve been with you for like, twenty years. You barely even know that girl. But now that you’re in love, suddenly you care more about her than me?”

Elsa sighed. That conversation was going nowhere. She walked up to Anna, and took both of her sister’s hands in hers, then stared into her eyes.

“Anna, listen to me... I like Honeymaren,” Anna rolled her eyes, scornfully, “but that has nothing to do with what I feel about you! I love you, Anna! You’re my sister. My only sister. And it doesn’t matter how many people come into my life from now on, because you’ll _always_ be the first in my heart.”

Anna still looked annoyed, but Elsa could see that she was caving. The younger girl took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and admitted defeat. “All right,” she said. “Sorry for getting angry at you.”

Elsa planted a tender kiss on her sister’s forehead, before they resumed walking west.

“But you know,” said Anna, a moment later, “you really should tend to my wounds first, next time.”

Elsa smirked. “You’re tough, you can handle it,” she said, deviously.

“Elsa!” Anna exclaimed, annoyed, and the other girl burst into laughter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my favorite chapter so far, I loved writing every one of the scenes in it.


	6. Chapter 6

Honeymaren was back before sunset, as she’d promised. Relief washed over Elsa’s face as she saw the brunette walking into the campsite, and they exchanged smiles. Anna rolled her eyes at that interaction... although she too must admit she was a little glad that Maren had returned safe. But the girl didn’t immediately go talk to them. Instead, Honeymaren walked up to the center of the campsite, to meet Yelana. Elsa watched as the two talked, unable to make out what they were saying. Anna hit her elbow against Elsa’s ribcage, to remind her sister that she was supposed to be helping her and Kristoff pack their belongings on Sven’s wagon. But just as Elsa resumed working, she saw Honeymaren walking up to them.

“Hey,” she said. “I’m glad you’re back.”

“Yeah,” said Honeymaren. “Glad to see you two are safe.”

“Did you find Anja?” Elsa asked.

“I did. Everyone’s fine, but they’re worried about the wolves. Anja’s tribe is coming to join Yelana’s, first thing tomorrow. A safety measure, at least for the time being. I guess you were right about the whole ‘strength in numbers’ thing.”

“Oh, trivia time!” said Olaf. “Did you know that the strongest numbers are three and eight? And did you know that before numbers were invented, people counted in letters? Also, did you know...” he went on relaying a series of other scientific facts of dubious veracity.

“What’s he doing?” Honeymaren whispered to Anna, who chuckled.

“That’s just Olaf for you,” said Anna.

“Are you still coming with us, Maren?” Elsa asked. “I mean... what about the tribe?”

“They’ll be fine, they can take care of themselves,” Honeymaren assured her. “Almost everyone here has fought wolves before, these new ones are just a little more colorful and, well, warm.”

“I like warm!” Olaf interjected, before returning to his trivia facts.

“And besides...” Honeymaren smiled gently at Elsa, and they looked each other in the eyes, “...I did give you my word, didn’t I?”

The Northuldra woman turned around, and walked back to the tribe, leaving behind a dumbstruck Elsa with a very visible blush on her cheeks. Beside her, Anna smirked, and started humming the melody to a famous love song — something about feeling the love tonight — while she carried on helping Kristoff secure their luggage on the wagon.

Two hours later, they were leaving the edge of the forest to get on the road that led southward to Arendelle. Anna, Kristoff and Olaf went on the wagon that Sven was pulling, while Elsa and Honeymaren followed behind, each riding a reindeer of their own.

“You know... there’s a reason I’ve been wanting to go back to Arendelle,” Elsa told Honeymaren. “I mean, apart from how much I miss everyone there.”

“And what’s that?” Maren asked her.

“Remember I told you about that feeling I’ve been having, lately?”

“That nature is trying to tell you something,” Honeymaren replied, thinking back to their conversation from a few days before. She tried not to focus on the fact that they had almost kissed at the time.

“Yes, that,” said Elsa. “Well... I think there’s some people back in Arendelle who could help me figure out what that feeling means. Kristoff’s family, to be precise.”

Honeymaren wondered about that. She was fairly sure Elsa had spoken to her about Kristoff’s family, but she couldn’t quite remember who they were. But there was another thing on her mind. “Do you think,” she asked, “that this thing nature wants to tell you has anything to do with the wolves that attacked us today?”

Elsa shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe. I suppose we could ask Sorenson about it. He’s a friend of ours, who’s an expert in myths and lore. He might have something for us on those wolves.”

“Sounds like a good plan,” said Honeymaren, and the two women fell in silence. As they traveled, the only sounds around them were the howling of the wind, the clattering of reindeer’s hooves on gravel, and Anna’s snoring as she slept next to Olaf on the wagon. Kristoff kept them moving steadily down the road. The mountain man remained surprisingly silent as they went. An unsuspecting onlooker would probably have pegged him as the stoic type, and no one would have said this was a man who sang songs about his heartaches and had conversations with reindeer.

“Trivia,” said Olaf. “Did you know it’s perfectly fine to talk to animals or inanimate objects? It’s only truly madness when you hear them talking back to you.”

“I’m hearing a snowman talking to me,” Elsa pointed out. “Does that mean I’m mad?”

“Well... that’s certainly possible, I suppose,” Olaf observed. “Want me to check up on that information for you when we get home?”

Elsa smirked. “No, thanks Olaf, I’m good.” Beside her, Honeymaren chuckled, and Elsa noticed a warm feeling spreading inside her chest. It felt good to travel with Maren by her side.

Hours later, the group got off the road and stopped by a stream nearby. They set up camp just beyond a hill, so they’d be hidden from sight of anyone traveling the road at night. Kristoff started a campfire, and they all gathered around it to eat the Northuldran food they’d brought along (except for Olaf, who couldn’t eat, and for Sven, who preferred a nice and tasty clump of grass). Once that was done, Kristoff doused the flames in the campfire, then he and Anna told the others goodbye and walked into one of the two tents.

Elsa and Honeymaren were lying down on the grass together, staring at the sky. Out there, with no trees or buildings to narrow it, the sky seemed infinite, and it shone with countless stars like a million tiny crystals. It was a breathtaking sight.

“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to this,” said Honeymaren, enchanted. She turned her head sideways, to look at Elsa’s face. “Thank you for freeing the forest.”

“You should thank Anna,” Elsa informed her. “If she hadn’t broken the dam, I’d still be frozen in the depths of Ahtohallan, and the fog would never have been lifted.”

“Thank you both, then,” said Honeymaren. She turned her eyes back to the starry sky. “Really, Elsa. Ever since the day you arrived at the forest, my life has changed so much. I know that change can be scary, sometimes, but... just look at this! This is beautiful!” Honeymaren raised a hand, gesturing at the sky above them. Elsa turned to lie on her side, so she could look at Maren, and she saw the stars and the infinity of space all reflected in her eyes. The night sky was beautiful, yes, but so was that girl. Elsa wondered if it would be okay to tell her that.

Honeymaren rolled to her side as well, and now the two girls were face-to-face.

“You’re one of the best things that ever happened to me,” Maren told her. Elsa felt a tugging inside her chest.

“So are you,” she replied.

They were so close to each other. There it was again, that moment, just like the other night at the Northuldra campsite, when Elsa had told Honeymaren that she was special. But this.... this was better. They stared into each other’s eyes for a long moment, their feelings gradually becoming transparent to each other, in the longingness within their eyes, in the small smiles that curled up on their lips, in the silence that rested between them. Elsa leaned closer, and this time, Honeymaren didn’t interrupt. Excitement sent both of their hearts racing, until at last, their lips touched.

And suddenly, all of Honeymaren’s worries simply faded away. It didn’t matter that Elsa was the fifth spirit or a princess of Arendelle, because at that moment she was just... just Elsa. She was the girl Honeymaren had feelings for, and that’s all that mattered.

Elsa’s first kiss was even better than she could have imagined it. As her lips caressed Honeymaren’s, she felt the warmth from before growing inside her chest once more, stronger, spreading through her entire body, all the way to the tips of her toes. She let Honeymaren guide the kiss, teaching her what to do, and how. Their kiss was a slow, loving one, that helped reassure the girls that their feelings were mutual. When it ended, it left behind an aftertaste of desire.

Honeymaren gently pushed a loose lock of hair behind Elsa’s right ear, and turned the gesture into a loving caress as she ran the backs of her fingers on Elsa’s skin.

“I can’t believe this is real,” she whispered. “You have no idea how many times I’ve dreamt of doing this with you.”

“Oh, you too?” said Elsa, and they both started grinning. Honeymaren gave Elsa a short kiss on the lips, then a peck on the tip of her nose, and another on her right cheek, before Elsa embraced Maren and drew her closer, allowing them to cuddle together. She took Honeymaren’s hand in hers, and interlocked their fingers together. Then she brought their joined hands up and kissed Maren’s fingers, before Honeymaren herself decided to replicate the gesture. They remained like that for a long time, just feeling the warmth of that embrace under a clear sky with a million stars.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> <3


	7. Chapter 7

Kristoff woke up early as usual. He looked lovingly at the sleeping Anna by his side. Her hair was tangled in what looked like a bird’s nest, she was snoring softly and drooling slightly on the mattress. His heart was filled with warmth. That was the woman of his life. Gorgeous, funny, brave and brilliant Anna.

He yawned, changed into his day clothes, and stepped outside the tent to fetch some water from the stream. He took a couple of steps... and nearly tripped on something. Or rather, someone. Flabbergasted, the mountain man crawled back into the tent, and called his fiancée.

“Darling?” he had to ask a few times before Anna showed any sign of having heard it.

The woman rubbed her eyes with her knuckes.

“What is it, Kristoff?”

“I think there’s something outside that you should see.”

Still half-asleep, Anna sat up and stretched her arms (as well as the small tent would allow) before following Kristoff outside. She looked at the “something” Kristoff had spoken of, and her jaw dropped.

A meter or so ahead of the tents, Elsa and Honeymaren were cuddling to each other while wrapped up together in a large blanket, both asleep.

“Good morning to you, lovebirds,” said Anna, half-an-hour later when Elsa woke up to the smell of frying eggs.

“Lovebirds?” Honeymaren asked, sitting up as well. “What kind of bird is that?”

Elsa’s face was beet-red. “Excuse me,” she told Maren, and walked up to the campfire, beside which Anna seemed to be working on some food for them.

“Can I talk to you for a second?” she asked.

“You may,” Anna observed, “but I don’t think there’s much point.”

“Oh hey, Elsa!” Kristoff called her. He had just come back from the stream, carrying a pail of fresh water. “I had no idea about you and Honeymaren. But hey, good for you.”

Elsa facepalmed. “You’re right,” she admitted, “there’s no point.”

“I’m just saying,” Anna retorted, “that if you two wanted privacy, you should have slept _inside_ the tent.”

Honeymaren appeared beside Elsa.

“That smells delicious,” she told Anna.

“Thanks,” Anna replied, grateful for the compliment. “It’s just an omelet, really. I’m making one for us, and another for Kristoff.”

Elsa knew something about that. People didn’t often expect a member of the royal family of Arendelle to know how to cook. It’s generally assumed that they’ll always have someone to cook for them, and that they should worry themselves with matters more important for the kingdom, such as foreign affairs, local laws and currency, protection of borders and maintaining peace in the land. But recently, Anna had been asking Olina for cooking lessons. The idea is that such a skill could be useful if she ever goes traveling on her own and has to fend for herself. Which was exactly the situation they were in, just then.

“I don’t suppose Kristoff can cook,” Elsa observed.

“He can,” said Anna, without taking her eyes off the frying pan, “but it’s all troll food like mushroom stew and it tastes _awful_.”

Elsa and Honeymaren sat down beside Anna, and were soon joined by Kristoff. The four of them shared some of the food they’d brought along from the Northuldra tribe, which consisted mostly of cloudberries and flatbread, and shared Anna’s omelets. Which, it must be said, tasted just as good as they smelled. It stood to reason. Olina was the head of the cooking staff in the castle, and if she was the one giving Anna lessons, that meant Anna was learning from the best.

Elsa’s eyes fell on the scabbard that lay on the ground beside Anna. The polished hilt of the blade shone in the morning light. A strange, muddy feeling began to churn inside her chest. She wanted to ask Anna about it, to know why she’d kept that sword a secret from her up until a few days ago.

So maybe she wasn’t being fair. Elsa had kept secrets from Anna for all of their lives. She hid her powers, her fear of failure, and even the siren’s call. And Anna had never been anything to Elsa but an open book. So she knew that she was in no position to judge, or to make demands, and she also knew that Anna was entitled to whichever secrets she wanted to keep, of course. It just really bothered Elsa that her sister had decided to keep this particular one.

It wasn’t that this was something big, or really important, or something intimate that nobody should know, Elsa would have understood if Anna had wanted to keep a secret of that kind. The thing is that this really seemed trivial. And because it was trivial, it made no sense that Anna had wanted to hide it. So there must be something else. But what?

She set her questions aside, for the time being. It made no sense for her to confront Anna about it. She didn’t have the right to. Maybe she could ask her sister later, tactfully, without making it seem like she was demanding an explanation. And maybe Anna would tell her. It would be fine.

They finished eating. Kristoff got up, and walked to the tents, to break camp. “We should get going,” he told the others, “if we want to reach Arendelle by nightfall.”

The four people plus snowmen spoke mostly of amenities during the rest of their trip to Arendelle. Anna was being a chatterbox, as usual, but she didn’t once raise the issue of her sister’s situation with Honeymaren, something Elsa was immensely grateful for. That’s because Elsa and Maren hadn’t yet talked to each other about what that kiss — and that night — really meant. Were they a couple now? Friends with benefits? Or was that just a one-time thing? Elsa was scared. She didn’t want her friendship with Honeymaren to change over this, and even though she felt the desire to take a step further, she hesitated. There was too much uncertainty about all this.

She tried not to think about it, too much.

They reached Arendelle just minutes before nightfall, as Kristoff had calculated. Honeymaren stared at the kingdom in admiration, the rooftops illuminated in the golden light of dusk. It was much bigger than she’d imagined, at first, and even Elsa’s most valiant attempts at describing it to her — some including ice mock-ups — still couldn’t prepare Honeymaren to what Arendelle really looked like. She felt a pull in her chest, as if compelled to go down there and explore... but then Kristoff turned Sven around, and the group started going down a clay road that went the exact opposite direction from the city.

“Hey, hold on!” she protested. “Where are we going? I mean, the town is that way, right?” she pointed at the forest of houses and trees that lined the water’s edge. She looked at Elsa, but the ice spirit simply shrugged.

It was Anna who explained it. “We’re stopping somewhere for the night,” she said. “I’m tired, I smell of reindeer, and I know that as soon as I step into the castle there will be millions of urgent things for me to take care of. I’d rather deal with all that in the morning, after a bath and a good night’s sleep.”

A few minutes later, they stopped by a lonely cottage at the side of a hill, surrounded by pine trees. The newly-refurbished sign over the porch read “Wandering Oaken’s Inn,” with a smaller sign hanging from it reading “And we still have the sauna”.

“When did Oaken open an inn?” Elsa inquired, curiously.

“A few months ago,” her sister explained. She was helping Kristoff unload their belongings from Sven’s wagon. “Remember when the dignitaries from the neighboring kingdoms came to visit?” her question was addressed at Elsa, who nodded. That whole situation had happened just a month before Elsa moved to the enchanted forest, and the circumstances around it were... difficult to forget. “Well,” Anna continued, “ever since then we’ve been getting a lot more people coming to visit. Mostly tourists. I asked Oaken to see if he could provide lodging for some of them, and the idea sort of grew on him.

They climbed the steps that led to the front door, and Anna opened it carefully. Chimes jingled as they walked inside.

“Queen Anna!” Oaken called excitedly from behind the counter. She smiled.

“Hello, Oaken.”

Elsa was alone in one of Oaken’s rooms, sitting with her back against the headboard of a comfortable bed. She held an open book in her hands, but could not bring herself to read it. There was too much in her mind, at that moment. She closed her eyes one more time, and the images came back to her: trees burning, people running uphill, fields of withering crops, billowing clouds of smoke, and then those eyes. Two large round eyes with narrow black slits for pupils, staring at her threateningly from within a circle of flames and molten rock.

A creaking sound came from somewhere in the room, and it startled Elsa so much that when she opened her eyes and looked down, she found that she had frozen the book in her hands. She sighed, and made away with the ice.

Honeymaren was standing in the doorway to the room, with one hand on the doorknob and a guilty expression in her face.

“Sorry,” she said, quietly. “Did I scare you? Were you sleeping?”

Elsa shook her head. “No, I was... reading...” it was a half-truth. She had really tried to read, but found that it was impossible to concentrate when every time she closed her eyes those images would flash again behind her eyelids.

Honeymaren walked up to her, and sat beside Elsa on the bed.

“You look troubled,” she told the spirit. “Wanna tell me what’s on your mind?”

Elsa looked down, feeling conflicted. She did want to tell someone about the images. She just wasn’t sure if her friends and family would understand, or if there was anyone who could help her figure out what they meant. Maybe Grand Pabbie could, but... Honeymaren? Telling her this would just cause worry.

“Sorry, Honey,” said Elsa, the nickname escaping her lips by mistake. It made Honeymaren smile.

“It’s all right,” said the brunette. “Why don’t we talk about something else, then? I mean, have you ever been to that ‘sauna’ thing Oaken has downstairs? That stuff’s weird.”

Elsa smiled, feeling grateful for Honeymaren’s presence by her side, then. “Thanks,” she said, and found herself staring deeply into the other woman’s eyes. One moment later, they were kissing.

Anna was standing just outside the open door, waiting for an opportunity to speak, and she thought this was a good one. “Er-hem,” she said, startling Elsa for the second time in the evening. She pulled back from the kiss.

“Sorry for interrupting,” said Anna. “Wait, no, strike that, I’m not sorry,” she smiled deviously at Elsa, who glared. “So anyway, I just came to tell Honeymaren that the bath is free, so she could go wash herself.”

Honeymaren nodded, and got up from the bed. “Thanks, Anna,” she told her, before leaving the room.

This was followed by a moment of silence. Anna watched her sister with growing concern. Elsa was hugging herself and staring out the window at the rain that had just begun to fall. There was something about the expression on her face that really worried Anna. She looked just like she had that one time, months before, when she’d been hearing some unknown voice in the wind. Anna couldn’t ease all of her sister’s worries, but there were other things she could do.

Elsa had been so distracted, so lost in her thoughts, that she didn’t even notice when Anna walked up to her. She felt a warm and soft fabric embrace her shoulders, and looked down to discover that it was her mother’s scarf.

Anna was already making her way out of the room. She stopped for a moment in the doorway, and spoke three words.

“Good night, Elsa.”

Then she closed the door, leaving her sister alone with her thoughts once more. But it was a bit different now. Because after this moment, Elsa didn’t feel so helpless and alone anymore.

“Thank you, sis,” she whispered into the empty room.


	8. Chapter 8

Elsa had vivid nightmares that night, for the first time in almost twenty years. In her dream, she was standing in the Northuldra campsite, surrounded by fire wolves, and all around her the forest was burning. The Northuldra were gone — they weren’t simply elsewhere, they didn’t exist anymore — and Elsa was all alone. The wolves were closing in on her. She desperately tried to conjure ice magic around her, to stop the wolves and the flames on the trees, but found herself unable to. Her magic was gone. Or rather, did she even have ice powers? Maybe all of that had been the dream, and the reality was _this_ : that she human, only human, powerless before the raging fire.

As despair settled in Elsa’s heart, the wolves jumped on her, all at once, and she woke up, panting.

The room around her was dark, but there was enough moonlight shining through the window for Elsa to make out the contours of her surroundings. She remembered Oaken’s inn, realizing that there was no fire in the forest and everyone she loved was fine. She looked to her side, and found Honeymaren asleep in the bed next to her, sleeping peacefully. The storm inside Elsa’s chest started to subside. Just to reassure herself, Elsa opened her hand, palm up, and conjured a small ice crystal. Her powers, too, were still there.

Slowly, taking extra care so as not to wake the other woman up, Elsa got up from the bed, and tiptoed her way out of the room. There was barely enough light on the corridor to make out the walls around her and the staircase at the end of it. She took careful steps, so as not to trip while going down the stairs, then opened the door that led outside, rattling the hanging chimes in the process.

Outside, a chilly breeze blew through the slope of the hill, shaking the leaves of the pine trees around her. Winter was probably just around the corner. Elsa found a fallen log a few meters away from the house, and sat down. She’d come outside to try and clear her head, a little, but soon found the task to be impossible: images of fire plagued her mind every time she closed her eyes.

“Elsa?”

The man’s voice came from somewhere behind her. She turned around, to see who it was.

“Hello, Kristoff,” said the spirit. “Having trouble sleeping?”

“I was just checking on the reindeer,” the mountain man told her. Kristoff was a worrywart. The castle was one thing: there was the royal guard, and nobody in their sane mind would dare touch a hair of Sven’s fur with ill will. But out there, in a lonely cabin in the woods, Kristoff feared for the worse. It was probably hard for him to be sleeping with Anna in a bedroom instead of in the barn with Sven. Elsa had wanted to reassure him that Sven was fine, and that Oaken’s barn was a pretty safe place to be, all things considered, but she knew it would be hard to change his mind.

Kristoff sat down on the log beside Elsa. “What about you?” he asked.

Elsa didn’t feel like giving a monologue on her nightmare and her visions, so she made something else up. “Just... cooling off in the night air, I guess,” was what she went with.

“I assumed you, of all people, wouldn’t need the night air for that,” Kristoff argued, and Elsa chuckled. It was true. Cooling stuff was her specialty.

She closed her eyes again, for a moment. As expected, the images returned. These were no longer flashes or hints, as had been back in the forest. The images Elsa was seeing now were vivid, as if she was actually in there. She sighed. Even putting aside the nightmares, Elsa knew she wouldn’t be able to rest or sit still for as long as those images were still in her mind. She decided she had to do something about it.

“Kristoff,” she called. “Can you take me to Gran Pabbie?”

Honeymaren woke up as the first rays of sunlight came in from the window, and discovered that she was alone in the rustic bedroom. Where could Elsa had gone? Some of her belongings, such as a book and a bag with clothes, were resting in a corner of the room, so Elsa must still be around, no? Maybe she’d simply gone to the bathroom?

As she was thinking this, Honeymaren heard a rap on the door.

“Elsa?” Anna called from outside.

Honeymaren got up and went to open the door.

“Where’s Elsa?” Anna asked, surprised, before she remembered her manners. “Sorry. Good morning, Maren. Listen... I can’t find Kristoff. Or Sven. I figured I should ask Elsa, she may know something about it. Do _you_ know something, Honeymaren?”

Honeymaren shook her head. “I just woke up. Elsa’s not here. She didn’t tell me anything, either.”

Anna sighed. Surely it couldn’t be something bad, could it? But for Elsa and Kristoff to both disappear at the same time, taking Sven with them... Maybe something serious _did_ happen. Anna wished they’d at least told her something about it. It was normal for Elsa to just up and leave on her own. Anna hated it, but that’s just how her sister was. But not Kristoff, though. Was it some sort of emergency? Whatever it was, it worried her.

They heard a whistling. A very cheerful snowman was coming down the corridor, singing a song by himself. “...super cuddly, and not all puddly, unmeltable...”

“Olaf!” shouted Anna and Honeymaren at the same time.”

“Me!” the snowman shouted back.

“No, listen!” Anna pleaded, walking up to him. “Did Elsa or Kristoff tell you they were going somewhere? Did they tell you why they took Sven?”

Olaf raised a wooden hand to his chin, looking as if lost in deep thought. “Well, it’s funny you should mention this,” he said. “They didn’t tell me anything of the sort, no. It really is just funny that you asked, though.” Anna sighed, and facepalmed. Olaf wasn’t always the most helpful person around. “Oh!” said the snowman, “but I did find this letter on the nightstand in your room, Anna.”

“Give it here!” Anna demanded, yanking the folded paper from the snowman’s hand.

It was a letter from Elsa.

“Dear sister,” Anna read out loud, for Honeymaren to hear it too. “I’m sorry I left without saying anything. I asked Kristoff and Sven to take me to the Valley of the Living Rock. There’s something I need to ask Grand Pabbie, and I’m afraid it’s somewhat urgent. Don’t worry, I’ll meet you at the castle in the morning. Love, Elsa.” Anna took a deep breath, and let it out slowly, feeling the tension leave her shoulders. “They’re all right,” she announced to Honeymaren. “They’re with Kristoff’s family.”

Honeymaren remembered Elsa saying something about it, back when they were on the road together. She’d said that maybe Kristoff’s family could help her figure out what nature had been trying to tell her. But was it really something so urgent that Elsa couldn’t wait until the morning?

Anna seemed a lot more relaxed now. “So, Maren,” she called, “since it’s just us here for the time being, what do you say Olaf and I give you a tour of Arendelle? Before we get to the castle and I have to spend the next three days buried neck-deep in work.”

Honeymaren chuckled. “Sounds good.”


	9. Chapter 9

Anna and Honeymaren were walking down one of Arendelle’s major streets. Before they left the inn, Anna spoke to Oaken to make sure their reindeer would be safe and sent to the castle stables sometime later that day. Anna found she enjoyed walking through Arendelle far more than riding. Olaf turned down her invitation to come along, saying something about pondering the great questions of the universe, so it would be just Anna and Honeymaren until they got to the castle.

As they walked, people bowed or curtsied to them, and they all addressed Anna with a sort of reverence Honeymaren had only heard of in stories.

“My Queen!” exclaimed a burly man, bowing halfway down to the floor.

“Good morning to you, Mr. Blodget,” Anna replied.

“Your Majesty,” said a tall woman in a gardening apron, as she curtsied.

“Fine day, isn’t it, Gabriella?” Anna asked.

“Queen Anna!” shouted a group of about seven children, just before they ran over to meet her. Anna crouched down to speak to them, calling each child by their own name. They seemed very hyped about seeing her, and kept begging her for stories.

One of the children, a girl with braided golden hair, looked up at Honeymaren the same way one would look at an imposing piece of art.

“Who are you?” she asked, wide-eyed.

Beside them, Anna giggled. “Kids, meet Honeymaren. She’s a dear friend of mine, from the great tribe of the Northuldra.”

A young boy with scraggly black hair took a cautious step back. “My dad said the Northuldra are bad people,” he announced.

Anna frowned. She knew this was bound to happen, sooner or later. The reputation of the Northuldra had been severely damaged among Arendellians decades before, when King Runeard and several of the soldiers from his army failed to return from what was supposed to be a peaceful mission to the North. History had it that the Northuldra attacked unprovoked, killing Runeard and others, but few people knew the truth about that day. Anna knew that it would take a lot of time and effort to change that reality.

“Tell your father,” Anna held the boy’s hand as she spoke, “that Queen Anna said the Northuldra are the kindest people in the whole world. Tell him that the stories about King Runeard are wrong, and that the Northuldra are friends of mine, of princess Elsa, and of all the people in Arendelle.”

The boy seemed a little confused by that, but he nodded. It really helped that the people of Arendelle — particularly the children — had such a fondness for Anna. They trusted her.

“Are you a princess too?” the girl from before, the one with braids, asked Honeymaren.

Maren was about to tell the girl that there were no princesses in the Northuldra tribe, but she was interrupted by Anna.

“She is!” said the Queen. “Princess Honeymaren of the Enchanted Forest.”

Those words had a magical effect on the children. They instantly flocked around Honeymaren, delighted. “Wow!” said the braids girl, whose name was Laura. Maren grinned and rolled her eyes. The children had never seen a princess from an enchanted forest before, and were visibly very excited. They asked Maren a bunch of questions. Some more reasonable, such as “what does the enchanted forest look like” and “are there magical spirits there, like the stories say”. Others completely weird, such as “do you have breakfast with fairies” and “do you ride over rainbows on a unicorn”. And then Laura asked her if she was in love with a prince, making Honeymaren blush and stutter awkwardly, and Anna took mercy on her.

“All right, that’s enough,” said the Queen. “Princess Honeymaren has some really important business to attend to. We need to go, now. Say goodbye, everyone.”

Honeymaren was grateful for Anna’s save. They strolled away, waving at the children as they went. When the two of them were already a certain distance away, Honeymaren cleared her throat, and asked:

“Princess Honeymaren of the Enchanted Forest?”

“Oh, come on, they loved it,” Anna argued. “Besides, you’re sort of a princess anyway, seeing that you’re dating my sister. _Are_ you dating Elsa, by the way?”

“I guess?” said Honeymaren, awkwardly. “I mean, we haven’t really talked about this yet, but I suppose I could be, if Elsa wants it. I know _I_ want it.”

“Ooooh, you do?” Anna teased, making the other girl blush. “Should I tell my sister that?”

“Please don’t,” Honeymaren protested.

Anna giggled. “I’m just messing with you,” she said, and turned to greet a few more of the townsfolk as they passed them by. They eventually stopped at a café, where Anna ordered a few traditional Arendellian pastries for Maren to try. After that, they went to the blacksmith’s workshop. Honeymaren saw a pair of beautiful, tall strong women in sleeveless shirts working the forge, sweating in the sweltering heat of the fire. It was an... interesting sight, so to say.

Anna introduced them as “Master Ada Diaz and Master Tuva Diaz.” The two women spoke to Anna in a more intimate fashion than most townsfolk, and Honeymaren was glad to see that they were addressing Anna by name only, without bothering with honorifics. It was refreshing. Maren was starting to feel anxious being the only one around that didn’t call Anna “your Majesty.”

They left the workshop, and continued walking down the cobblestone street toward the Bridge of Arches, that linked the city of Arendelle with the Castle.

“So, how do you like Arendelle so far?” Anna asked her.

“It’s... different,” said Honeymaren. It wasn’t just a way of being polite, she really couldn’t tell if she liked the city or not, yet, but it was a very interesting place nonetheless. Anna giggled, amused.

A salty breeze blew in from the ocean. Anna stopped walking and closed her eyes for a moment, a smile plastered on her lips.

“I love this smell,” she told Maren. “It’s so good to be home.”

But Anna’s moment of joy was short lived. A scream from somewhere behind them broke the calmness of that morning. The two women turned to look, and saw a pair of fishermen with clothes on fire. They ran down to the shore and plunged into the river. Anna and Honeymaren raced toward them, but by the time they got there, the two men were already being helped by other townsfolk.

“Your Majesty!” called one of the fishermen when he saw Anna. “Please help us! It’s black magic!”

“Black magic?” Anna repeated, uncertainly.

“We were just coming down from the market, Your Majesty,” the other man attempted to explain. “Then all of a sudden our clothes caught on fire.”

Anna thought that this didn’t make the least bit of sense. She knew magic. Elsa had it, and so did Grand Pabbie and the spirits at the forest. The books in the secret study at the castle spoke often of it. But she had never heard of a type of magic that set people’s clothes on fire. Maybe there was a different explanation?

As the Queen pondered about this, Honeymaren watched their surroundings. She saw an odd-looking bug flying leisurely toward them, and reached to catch it. But when she opened her hand to look, there was only soot there.

Then there were other bugs, all coming into town from the river, following the direction of the breeze. Maren nudged Anna.

“Huh?” said Anna, surprised. “What is it, Honeymaren?” She looked up, and at that point everyone at the water’s edge had already spotted the bugs. They were small, and flew toward the town slowly, almost as if the breeze was the only thing carrying them. One of them flew by close enough for Anna to perceive them for what they were.

“Fireflies?” she asked.

Baker Blodget reached to catch one, as Honeymaren had done before, but he hastily retreated, yelping in pain. Anna could see redness and instant swelling in his palm. It had burned him.

And then it started. The fireflies landed on ships, houses, trees... and every place they touched caught on fire.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honeymaren being gay. More on that later.


	10. Chapter 10

Leaving behind the two most important people in her life _hurt_ Elsa, but she couldn’t help it. The visions, once just fleeting glimpses, had quickly become much more frequent, and more real, to the point where she now couldn’t close her eyes without seeing them yet again. This sudden change brought to her a sense of urgency, and Elsa feared that whatever nature was trying to warn her about simply couldn’t wait another whole day. It had to be that night.

Kristoff was a good friend. He was always willing to help, and he never invaded Elsa’s personal space. He was also kind, brave and loyal, as far as the spirit could tell. After her absolute fiasco with Hans, Anna had actually managed to find herself a good partner for a change.

The Valley of the Living Rock was the residence of the trolls. It was located within the Black Mountains, not too far from Arendelle, but even at top Reindeer speed it still took them about an hour to get there. Elsa could barely remember it: she had only been there once, and she was eight at the time. But she had met Grand Pabbie and the trolls some more times since, elsewhere, and she knew that if there was anyone in Arendelle who could help her, it would be them.

But she was wrong.

As Sven pulled over near the rocky knoll, the trolls jumped and hurried to meet their visitors. They dearly celebrated the arrival of Kristoff and Sven, and some even came to greet Elsa, despite her being mostly a foreigner to them.

Grand Pabbie was in the center of the knoll. He turned around from where he was standing, stared at the visitors for a moment, then walked up to them. As he came, Elsa could see that his face remained very much inexpressive, even for a creature made mostly of rock.

“I figured you’d show up here, sooner or later,” he told Elsa. “I wish I was wrong, though.”

“So you’ve seen them too?” Elsa asked, expectantly.

“Seen them?” Pabbie inquired, a mild tone of surprise and doubt in his voice. “What are you talking about?”

“The visions,” Elsa explained. “Forest fires, people fleeing Arendelle, droughts... Haven’t you seen them?”

Grand Pabbie chuckled, but his voice sounded saddened nonetheless. “Dear child,” he said, “I haven’t seen visions of any sort in a while now. Look above you, Elsa. What do you see?”

Elsa did as she was told. It was a clear and crisp autumn night, and the starry sky shone vividly before her eyes.

“I see the stars,” she announced. “And the crescent moon.”

Grand Pabbie nodded, slowly.

“And what _don’t_ you see?” he asked next.

This question was trickier. Elsa hesitated, trying to figure out where the chief of trolls was going with this line of reasoning.

“Well... there are no clouds,” said Elsa, finally. Grand Pabbie waited. What else, then? What was Pabbie expecting her _not_ to see? “I don’t think there are any stars missing,” she concluded, after checking the major constellations. But the chief of trolls still waited. Something else, then? “The aurora isn’t here,” she announced, “but that’s nor—”

Elsa stopped herself talking as a realization hit her. When was the last time she’d seen the lights? Living in the forest with the Northuldra, she must have stared at the night sky at least a hundred times. It was late November already, and even if you couldn’t expect to see the lights at every single night, you’d definitely see them _some_ nights. So why was it that every memory Elsa had of the aurora was from before her moving into the forest? She looked down at Grand Pabbie’s face, and saw him staring gravely at her.

Fear began to grow inside Elsa’s chest.

Something was very, very wrong.

“Are... are the lights gone?” she almost couldn’t bring herself to say it.

Grand Pabbie nodded, slowly, sadly. It confirmed Elsa’s fears. Suddenly, it felt as if the woman had been struck by lightning. The northern lights had been there all of her life, it was practically impossible to imagine the colder months of the year without them. They were one of the few certainties she had about life, one of the few things she knew would never change. But now, they had.

“Why?” was all that she could bring herself to ask.

Grand Pabbie shrugged. “Without the lights,” he told Elsa, “I can offer you no answers. Only more questions.”

Answers?

As soon as she heard Pabbie’s words, Elsa knew where she had to go. There was a place where she could find answers. Answers and a path.

“Ahtohallan,” she announced, suddenly filled with determination. “I need to go back to the North. If I’m to find out what caused this, I’ll have to ride to Ahtohallan in the Dark Sea.”

Kristoff approached her, then, and placed one hand on her shoulder. “Are you sure about this?” he asked. “It really is a long journey.”

Elsa was sure. She considered his question for a moment, remembering all the people she’d have to leave behind once again. But the next step in her journey was clear, now, and nothing could change her mind.

“I have to do this,” she told Kristoff and Sven. “If I go now, I think I might make it back in a couple of days. You two should head back and stay together with Anna and Honeymaren. Tell my sister... tell her that I’ll come back soon. And that I promise I will not go too far this time, or ever again. Tell her exactly these words.”

“I... might need paper to write that down,” said Kristoff, and Sven rolled his eyes. Come on, it wasn’t even too much to remember. But still, he reached with his head in the wagon behind him, grabbed a journal between his teeth, and “handed” (mouthed?) it to Kristoff.

“Before you go,” Pabbie addressed Elsa again, “there is something I can tell you that may help you find your answer. I believe you’ve met the four spirits of the forest, haven’t you?” Elsa nodded. “Then,” Grand Pabbie continued, “after you return from Ahtohallan, you might want to try and find the fire spirit. Because as much as the wind belongs to the air spirit, and the waves belong to the water spirit, so does the aurora belong to the fire spirit. It is the expression of fire in the sky. If it’s gone, then meeting with fire might help you understand what happened to it.

 _Fire_ , thought Elsa. There was fire in her visions, fire wolves in the forest, the aurora was gone... It couldn’t all be a coincidence. Was Bruni in danger? Or was he the cause of all this? Maybe the troll was right that she should look for the fire spirit.

“I understand,” said Elsa. “Thank you, Grand Pabbie.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On the next episode of Silly Fanfic I Write In My Spare Time During Quarantine: More Anna, Honeymaren, Tuva and Ada. Will Anna be capable of managing the kingdom of Arendelle during a crisis? Will the mysteries surrounding Honeymaren finally be revealed? Will we see more Tuva and Ada being hot goddesses in tank tops? Find out tomorrow (probably)!


	11. Chapter 11

Anna commanded a task force against the fires. Before then, Honeymaren had only ever seen her as a friend, nothing more. Even if she knew, consciously, that Anna was Queen of Arendelle, the real meaning of that title escaped her. She began to understand, however, once the fireflies came.

Being Queen meant that the lives of all people in the kingdom were in Anna’s hands. They would follow every one of her commands, throwing themselves in harm’s way without hesitation should she ever ask that of them. It was a position of power, because the young queen was allowed to make decisions that affected the entire kingdom, but she also held full responsibility for the outcomes. There was no parallel Maren could draw with the Northuldra. Yelana was the leader of her tribe, but leaders gave orientation, not orders, and decisions were taken collectively. Furthermore, the tribe only had sixty people. Arendelle had thousands.

The first thing Anna did was order an evacuation of all the houses up to three streets in from the riverside. She gathered volunteers, split them into teams — each responsible for a number of blocks — and assigned supervisors to make sure everyone was accounted for and nobody would take unnecessary risks. All people were advised to steer clear of any fireflies they saw: their touch burned the skin and set clothes on fire. Those who could, should try to drown them, or hit them with non-flammable materials, such as rocks and metals, to stop them from setting anything else on fire.

Once the rescue groups set off, Anna had all the remaining people grab buckets or pails and start working on extinguishing the fires on the houses.

The castle guard and staff came over to meet their Queen. Anna had ordered the guard to evacuate the castle, and Kai, the steward, had made sure that no one was being left behind. Anna was immensely grateful that he did so. She asked the group to go help extinguish the fires in the city, and warned them to avoid the fireflies as well.

“What about the castle?” Kai asked.

“Leave it,” said Anna. The flames had already consumed a sizable portion of the west wing, and would soon spread to the rest. Anna had decided that as long as everyone was safely outside, the castle was a minor casualty. Saving the people and their homes took precedence.

A few blocks away from there, Honeymaren was helping one of the rescue parties, the one led by Tuva and Ada, the blacksmith women she had just met an hour earlier. As far as Maren could tell, they were doing a fine job. Almost all of the houses in the area had already been evacuated, and nobody seemed to be missing or severely injured. But the flames were advancing, spreading over rooftops and tearing down walls, and they were still running against time to try and get everyone to safety.

Maren saw Tuva walk out of a building, carrying a woman who was barely still conscious. She had suffered more burns than most, and was repeatedly calling a name — Laura —, even though her voice was frail and faltering.

“What’s happening?” asked Maren, running over to them.

“Her daughter is still inside,” Ada informed her. “We’re trying to figure out a plan to rescue her.”

 _Laura_... wasn’t that the girl with braids who’d asked if Maren was a princess, earlier? Oh, no.

Another house on the block collapsed, the weakened structure unable to support the weight of the roof. It made everyone in the rescue group apprehensive. That house had been empty, but it could just as well have been the one Laura was trapped in.

“There’s no time,” Honeymaren realized. She took a deep breath, mustering up the courage, and then dashed into the building before anyone could think to stop her!

“Honeymaren!” Tuva yelled. “Come back! It’s too dangerous!”

Tuva considered going after her. If Honeymaren didn’t come back soon, she would definitely have to. But just as she began to discuss it with Ada, a small part of the roof collapsed onto the porch below, filling the doorway with debris, and the two women realized, with desolation, that Honeymaren and Laura had just been trapped inside.

Anna was doing rounds on the rescue teams, taking note of all survivors and, whenever possible, sending them to a plateau that served as a safe haven in these situations. It was the same place where the people of Arendelle had taken refuge when the spirits of nature ravaged the town, months before, and they could set temporary residence there until the situation in the city got under control again.

There were also many people in need of medical attention, and not enough physicians in the whole town to care for everyone, so Anna recruited a group of volunteers to form a health team, which would be supervised and instructed by those physicians. They set up to operate in the main square of Arendelle, which was thankfully quite far from the water’s edge, and unlikely to be affected by the fireflies.

Lastly, Anna was also taking note of all the deceased. It wasn’t an easy task. Anna knew most, if not all, of the people living in Arendelle, so every time she had to add a name to that list, it felt as if her heart was being stabbed. Countless times she had to fight the urge to fall to her knees and weep in grief. She couldn’t. She was the Queen, and everyone was counting on her. She had to stay strong, and keep leading the city so as to save as many people she could. All she could do was carry on, while promising herself that as soon as it was finally over, she would provide proper burial and ceremony for each of the victims. She could allow herself to cry then. But not just yet.

There was a commotion up ahead. Anna recognized Ada, shouting something into a burning house. Whatever it was didn’t seem good. Anna braced herself, and rushed over there.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

“It’s Honeymaren!” Ada exclaimed, visibly nervous. “She went inside to look for Jaya’s daughter, and then the entryway collapsed.”

 _Damn_ , thought Anna. This was why she had assigned group leaders to the rescue teams: so that nobody would take extreme risks like those. Even so, she understood Honeymaren’s point of view. You can’t just leave someone behind to die, even in a dangerous situation like that. But to lose both Laura and Honeymaren at the same time... Anna wasn’t sure she could handle it.

Beside them, in Tuva’s arms, Jaya wept and called her daughter’s name.

“Jaya!” Anna called. “Where’s your daughter, right now? Which room?”

“S– second floor,” she replied, with difficulty. “Her b– bedroom.”

Anna closed her eyes to focus. The entryway had been blocked by debris, nobody could get in or out. If there was any way for them to get Honeymaren and Laura out of the building, it would have to be through some other exit. The second-floor window seemed promising, but they’d have to hurry. The flames were spreading and weakening the structure of the building, which could collapse at any given moment.

“Kai, where’s my sister?” She asked. The steward had been following Anna around, helping her coordinate the rescue teams.

“I’m sorry, your Majesty, but I don’t understand,” said the man.

“Elsa!” Anna demanded. “She was supposed to be at the castle this morning. Didn’t you see her there?”

Kai hesitated. “Princess Elsa hasn’t been to Arendelle in a fortnight, your Majesty.”

What? Elsa wasn’t at the castle?

But then, where was she?

Anna shook her head. “Never mind,” she told the steward. There was no time to worry about that just yet, not with Honeymaren and Laura still trapped inside a burning house. The Queen looked around for something — anything — that might give her an idea.

There was an abandoned wagon near the botanist’s shop. The horse had been set loose, but the vehicle didn’t seem compromised by the fires. This was good. If only Anna had... yes, that, there! Those crates would do.

“Everyone!” Anna called. “We’re going to bring over that cart and pile up those crates in it,” she pointed at the cart. “We can get Laura and Honeymaren out if we can reach the second floor window! Come on!”

The people in the rescue team did not need telling twice. They hurried to follow Anna’s orders. The cart was wheeled up to the front of the building, and the crates were positioned so as to make steps leading up to the window. It wasn’t the safest contraption ever invented, but it would do the job. Anna was about to climb on it, when she felt someone’s hand on her shoulder.

It was Ada. “Allow me, your Majesty,” she told Anna.

The Queen nodded. “Be careful,” she replied.

Ada climbed the crates nimbly and gracefully, before disappearing through the window into Jaya’s house.

From that moment on, all they could do was wait, apprehensively, for Ada’s return, while praying to the spirits that the house structure held up long enough for everyone to be rescued and brought outside. Their wait lasted less than a minute, but each second seemed to stretch into eternity. Anna held her breath, anxiously, and was sure that everyone around her was doing the same thing.

Finally, they saw Ada appear again on the window. “They’re here!” she shouted to the people outside. Anna saw Ada help Honeymaren climb through the window and get on the crates. The Northuldra woman was holding a girl into her arms.

“She needs a healer!” Maren urged, as soon as her feet were on the floor. Even in her poor health state, Jaya hurried over to hold her daughter in her arms. Laura’s golden hair was mostly gone, and she sustained significant burns in her face, torso and left arm. She seemed to be unconscious, but breathing, making a soft wheezing sound each time she inhaled. Anna instructed Kai to take the girl, along with her mother, to the physicians, with haste.

“Also, Honeymaren, you should go too,” Anna recommended. But when she took a better look at the Northuldra woman, she couldn’t spot any burn marks on her skin. Maren was covered in soot, and her clothes sustained damage from the flames, patches of it charred or gone, but the woman herself seemed to be unharmed. “You’re... not hurt?” Anna asked, stunned. That was a good thing, of course, but entirely unexpected. Even Ada came out of the building sustaining a burn mark on her left wrist, and Maren had been in there for much longer than her.

“I... got lucky, I guess,” Maren told her.

Honeymaren was surprised when Anna embraced her, tightly.

“I was scared,” the Queen admitted. “I thought I’d lose you too.”

Honeymaren smiled. “Hey, I’m tougher than this,” she said, in her usual smug way. “Now come on, let’s go help the others.”

They carried on with their task of getting people out of their houses, and onto the way to the meeting spot in the plateau or to the physicians on the main square, depending on the case. Tuva and Ada were doing a good job coordinating the volunteers’ efforts, and Anna decided to go check on the other groups. But before she left, Anna stared suspiciously at a patch of Maren’s clothes, on her shoulder, that had been completely consumed by fire... and yet the skin underneath was unscathed. _Got lucky_ , she’d said. That looked like more than just luck. But Anna set the thought aside, she could wonder about it once all of this was over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The mystery remains.
> 
> With this, I've caught up with my drafts, but I'll still try to get a new chapter up tomorrow or the day after. I also wrote another fic these days featuring the very unique pairing Elsa/Ada, so if you like what I write maybe go check it out in my page :) It's mostly just teenage Elsa fluff.
> 
> Well... thanks everyone who's been reading this so far. I'll see you in the next chapter <3


	12. Chapter 12

Elsa found the Nøkk in the waters of Svartelva, the river that flowed through the Black Mountains, and Kristoff watched as the two of them rode northward through the valleys. The first rays of morning sunshine were already illuminating the peaks of the mountains, accentuating the sharp contrast of light and shadow that had given that mountain range its name.

He watched until Elsa was out of sight, then turned around to make his way back to his family’s valley. As he walked, he spotted a couple of rocks which could very well be trolls themselves, from different families, although there was no way to know for sure. Sunlight turned the trolls to stone, and it would be virtually impossible to distinguish an unfamiliar troll from the landscape around it, when they were like that. Just like that little person near the trees over there, that looked remarkably like a thick bush.

Kristoff blinked, unsure of what he was seeing.

“Huldra?” he asked, cautiously.

“Very perceptive,” the bush replied.

“Why are you here?” Kristoff inquired. He squinted his eyes, but it made no difference. The bush only seemed to give him a vague impression of a small person, but the harder he tried to look, the more it just appeared to be a bush and nothing else.

“We are everywhere, mountain man,” said the huldra. “You humans are just not very good at seeing things for what they really are. And you have such good eyes, too, it’s a pity.”

_Seeing things for what they are?_

“Is that a riddle?” Kristoff asked.

“Make of that what you will,” answered the huldra. “More importantly, mountain man, haven’t you lost something?”

“Have I?” Kristoff felt his pockets. Did he misplace one of his belongings? “What have I lost?”

“Yourself,” said the huldra, simply.

Kristoff furrowed his brow... Then realization hit him. He turned around to inspect his surroundings. The entire place was unfamiliar. It was the same barren ground with scanty grass that covered all of the valleys within the Black Mountains, but the knolls weren’t the ones he knew, the rocky ledges seemed rockier than her remembered, and if the trees could talk, they wouldn’t, because you shouldn’t talk to strangers.

In short, he was lost.

Kristoff turned his eyes back to the huldra, but the bush-man was gone. What should he do now? Which way to take? It was at moments like these that Kristoff Bjorgman really felt like singing, but it just wouldn’t be the same without Sven: the reindeer had stayed behind with the trolls while Kristoff left to guide Elsa to Svartelva.

Let’s be fair, how _could_ he be lost? Kristoff grew up in those valleys, he knew the way to and from the river like the back of his hand. Did he take a wrong turn somewhere?

Initially, Kristoff tried to retrace his steps. But by the second turn around a narrow passage he no longer had any idea which way he had come from, before. His next thought was to use the sun as a guide: if he kept going southwest, he’d eventually reach some part of the woodlands that stood between the mountains and Arendelle, and from there it would be easier to find the way back to his family’s Valley, and to Sven. But even that was proving challenging, for the steep shape and haphazard disposition of the mountains kept sidetracking him.

A fumarole expelled a large column of yellowish vapor into the air, barely a meter away from where Kristoff was standing. _Dangerous_ , he realized. Kristoff knew every steam vent within a two kilometer radius of his family’s Valley, and he was used to them all. But here, in a place he didn’t recognize, those would be unpredictable, and potentially hazardous. It would be better to watch his step.

He climbed a rock wall, reaching a more level section of one of the mountains, and as he walked around it, a loud roaring sound stopped the man in his tracks.

Kristoff looked up, and saw a pillar of grayish black steam rising from the top of the mountain.

This wasn’t good.

It was the middle of the night when Elsa finally arrived at Ahtohallan. Riding a steed of frost and water was more comfortable, at least to Elsa’s standards, than an actual horse or a reindeer, but even so, long journeys like those could still be draining. It reminded her that, spirit or not, there was still a part of her which was very much human.

She dismounted, her feet falling on the gravel shore that separated the ocean from the imposing glacier before her. Ahtohallan was Elsa’s home, even more so than the forest or Arendelle. She was always glad to return to it... But this time, though, Elsa felt apprehensive. The sky above Ahtohallan, albeit clear of clouds and riddled with stars, was incomplete. Though there were still the ocean beyond the shore, the land beneath her feet, the North wind ever blowing, and the ice of the glacier, one element was missing, and Ahtohallan didn’t feel the same.

Elsa took firm steps into the palace of memory, determined to find an answer. The air felt colder, and more uninviting, than any of the times she’d been there before. The fifth spirit and Ahtohallan shared a strong connection to each other. It might have been muddled before, the perception that something was wrong with the element of fire, but Elsa could feel it now, stronger than ever.

She walked into the innermost chambers, and images of ice started to form around her, reacting to her presence, and to the memories Elsa brought along, herself. She saw scenes of her life in the forest with the Northuldra, and of her days as Queen of Arendelle. As she advanced, the memories became gradually less personal. She was pursuing an answer, an explanation for the strange things that had been happening lately, and Ahtohallan was attempting to convey that answer to Elsa, in her own particular way.

Elsa saw memories she didn’t recognize. Anna standing on the streets of Arendelle, hastily relaying orders to the people around her. What could have been going on, in that moment?

Another step. It was a fire. Houses were burning, ships’ sails went up in flames, people hurried about, desperate.

Another step. “She needs a healer!” It was Honeymaren, holding a child in her arms. _When did this happen?_ thought Elsa. Ahtohallan was a place of memory, it only ever showed the past. And Honeymaren, who’d just arrived in Arendelle for the first time some twenty-four hours before, was shown in the memory holding a girl clad in Arendellian clothes. Could it be that the events Elsa was seeing had just happened a mere hours before? If so, she had to go back!

Elsa turned and looked at the way she’d just come, ready to run, but stopped herself. Even if she went now, she would only arrive in Arendelle in another day’s time, far too late to help with whatever was going on. And she still hadn’t gotten the answer she’d come to Ahtohallan for. She had to keep going.

Another step.

This time, Ahtohallan showed her a person she’d never seen. A Northuldra woman, panting, carrying a newborn child in her arms. She seemed frightened. What was she running from?

Another step. A wildfire. The woman was trapped, her back against a wall of rock, as the flames advanced. The newborn child cried.

Elsa was afraid to go further. _Can you face what the river knows?_ Take a deep breath.

Another step.

Elsa stopped and stared at the memory in profound sadness. The flames were gone, leaving behind burnt trees and a landscape of desolation. The woman was sitting on the scorched forest floor, with her back against the rock, unmoving. Even in death, she held on to the child tightly. But it was clear that the child, too, had suffered the same fate as their mother. The silence was ethereal, and cruel. Whose memory was this?

Another step, another answer. Bruni. The salamander scuttled through the forest floor. He climbed onto the body of the mother, escalating her arms until he stopped right next to the child’s face. Even as just a memory, conjured into existence by the frozen waters of Ahtohallan, Elsa could tell what he was doing. She, too, had done something similar in a number of occasions.

Another step. This time, Elsa saw a different Northuldra woman, one she could instantly recognize. Yelana looked younger in the memory, but that was definitely her. She was walking among the burnt trees, when she heard the cry of a baby.

Elsa was going deeper into Ahtohallan, walking down the steps that led toward its frozen heart. It was getting colder, and she shivered. The cold was starting to bother her.

Another step. Yelana again, and a different Northuldra woman who had been lying on a bed. Each of them held a newborn child in their arms. “She will need a mother,” said the memory of Yelana.

Another step.

There were no people in this memory, only a loud, deep rumble that filled the air in the room. On either side of Elsa, snow streamed down the slope into the chasm below, like a slow-flowing river.

Elsa stopped walking. She’d reached the last of the steps. The heart of Ahtohallan waited in the darkness before her. One leap, and Elsa could find the answer she’d come for. The reason for her visions, for the disturbance in fire, and the disappearing of the aurora. It was all down there, waiting for her.

Tempting. But not worth the cost.

Elsa turned around, and walked back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Am I happy that I got to write a scene with the Huldrefólk? Yes I am. I love the little guys. Also, Svartelva means "black river" in Norse. Just a bit of neat info I thought I should share.


	13. Chapter 13

The church bells tolled.

Anna had chosen a peaceful valley for the ceremony, one not too far from the plateau. Fifty graves were dug, forming a circle, and in front of each one a brazier was lit. The ceremony was being held at sunset, after the Queen had spent most of the afternoon making sure that all people who had lost their homes had shelter for the night. People carried biers with the deceased all the way from the town, and Anna herself helped carry some. Hundreds of people had come to attend the burials, to say their last goodbyes. Everyone looked saddened. Most people cried, the Queen included. Once all the graves had been filled with dirt, Mattias questioned Anna if she would like to speak to the people there, and she agreed.

Anna walked to the center of the ring of graves. Everyone remained silent, expectantly.

“I don’t have a speech for you, today,” the Queen announced. “I didn’t have time to prepare one, because I was mourning, as were you. The people we lost today, they were our friends, our families, our loved ones. They’re irreplaceable. We will rebuild our homes in Arendelle, but I think we all know that things will never be the same again. Not without them.” She paused, and closed her eyes, fighting the urge to cry. _Do the next right thing_. “I’d like to suggest that, from now on, this place be known as the Valley of Love, because I know that every single person we laid to rest in this ground today has been loved, and will be missed dearly. And as we leave tonight, let us pray to the spirits that their souls will find peace.”

Anna looked around at the people of Arendelle. Most of them nodded at her, or gave her a small smile in spite of the sadness of that moment. Mattias walked up to her, and Anna hugged him. Tears fell from her face again. The crowd began to dissipate.

“You did good, your Majesty,” said the man.

Honeymaren approached them. “That was beautiful,” she told Anna.

“Thank you,” Anna told them both.

The last rays of sunlight sunk into the horizon, and the three of them joined the crowd of people who were returning to the plateau, where tents had been built to house everyone who didn’t have a home to return to in Arendelle. Now that the castle was gone, this also meant Anna herself, and Honeymaren. Many people had offered them a place to stay, including Halima and Mattias, but Anna was of the mind that she needed to stay close to her people in their time of need. As the two women approached the tent that had been built for them, they were greeted by the castle steward, who’d just returned from Arendelle.

“Kai!” Anna exclaimed. “Did you find Elsa and Kristoff?”

“Neither your sister nor your fiancée were seen in Arendelle today, your Majesty.”

Anna thanked Kai, and dismissed him.

“Where are they?” she whispered, to nobody in particular. Elsa had written that they’d be in the castle by morning. So why hadn’t they returned yet?

“It’s probably just a setback,” Honeymaren argued, trying to lift Anna’s spirits. “Maybe they got caught in something and it delayed them. Or maybe they decided to go to some other place before returning. You know how your sister is, she can be very unpredictable at times.”

Anna smirked in contempt, annoyed with the way Maren made it seem like she knew Elsa better than herself. Anna knew very well how Elsa could act. And she also knew that her big sister wasn’t the best at keeping her word. Years ago she’d promised not to shut Anna out, and broken that very promise twice since, once with her nightmares, the other with the siren’s call. But all of that was Elsa, what about _Kristoff_?! He had never abandoned Anna before, and the Queen wouldn’t imagine he’d set out on some adventure with Elsa without at least giving her a heads-up.

If Anna’s fears proved right, then something must have happened to the both of them.

“I’ll send a search party,” Anna decided. “Tomorrow, to the Black Mountains. See if they can find any clues to their whereabouts.”

Elsa was back at the Northuldra campsite. She could see there were a lot more people living there now that Anja’s tribe had come to join Yelana’s. There were several new goathi, and many more reindeer in the sheds. But it was late, and everyone was asleep. Or almost everyone.

“Elsa!” Ryder greeted her, with a huge smile. But as she walked up to him, his face showed a bit of confusion and concern. “Why are you back so soon? Did something happen?” Ryder tilted his head to see if there was anyone behind his spirit friend. There wasn’t. “Where’s Honeymaren?” he asked.

“We got separated,” Elsa informed him. “Maren is with my sister in Arendelle. I had to come back, to find some answers in Ahtohallan.”

“Oh...” said Ryder. His eyebrows went up as he processed that information. “I keep forgetting you’re the fifth spirit. I wish _I_ could go to Ahtohallan. Must be beautiful there.”

Elsa gave him a small smile. “Is Yelana here?” the spirit asked. “There’s something I need to discuss with her.”

“Sure,” said Ryder. He turned around, and pointed at one of the goathi farther to the back of the campsite. “Over there.”

Elsa thanked him, and walked to the place he indicated.

“Yelana?” she called from outside.

Seconds later, the door was swung open, and the Northuldra leader was puzzled to find Elsa standing before her. But the surprise in her face was soon replaced with concern. She was fully aware that Elsa wasn’t supposed to return to the forest so soon. Her presence there meant something had gone wrong.

“Come in,” Yelana told her, going back into the hut. The fire crackled in the fireplace in the middle of the room, and an adult woman Elsa did not recognize was sitting on a blanket over at the right side of the tent. “Elsa, meet Anja,” Yelana announced. Then, turning to the other woman, she said: “This is the one I told you about, before. Iduna’s daughter.”

They studied each other for a moment. Elsa could see it now, the resemblance between that woman and her mother.

“It’s nice to finally meet you, Elsa,” said Anja. “I believe I am your aunt,” she said, chuckling.

Elsa smiled, and allowed herself to relax a little.

“Nice to meet you too, Anja.”

The woman gestured for Elsa to take a seat around the fire. “Yelana tells me that you would like to hear stories about your mother’s childhood... I’m afraid I don’t have any of my own, since I was only two when the mist came. The stories I know of Iduna were the ones I’ve heard from our sister Inga, or from Yelana here.”

“I would love to hear those, too,” said Elsa.

“Another time,” Yelana interrupted. “Elsa, I suppose you came back here for a reason.”

The spirit nodded, and the smile faded from her face. “I’ve been to Ahtohallan,” she announced. “I was trying to find answers to some of the things that have been happening lately. But the things I saw there, the memories Ahtohallan showed me... they were different from what I expected. I figured you could help me make sense of them, Yelana, since some of those memories included you.”

Yelana nodded, slowly. “Go on,” she told the spirit.

Elsa proceeded to narrate the scene she’d witnessed earlier, of a woman carrying a baby, trapped in the forest during a fire, and Yelana finding them there once the fire had died. Yelana had a grave expression on her face all along. She kept silent, only speaking once Elsa had finished the whole retelling.

“The woman you saw in the fire,” said the tribe leader, “was Laila, a dear friend of mine. She lived with Anja's tribe, at the time, but her husband lived in our tribe. She was with child, and even so she still used to come and go between tribes all by herself, in spite of all my advice in contrary. She gave birth that very night, during the journey. Now... you should know, Elsa, that wildfires are common in this forest during the dry season. I believe Laila had the misfortune of being caught into one.”

Elsa nodded. None of that explained why Ahtohallan had shown her those memories in particular. All of those things had happened over twenty years before, it didn’t seem to be related to what was going on in present time.

 _The past has a way of returning_.

There was one more thing which remained unexplained.

“The child you found...” Elsa began to ask.

“Laila’s daughter,” Yelana told her. “The fires that night took Laila’s life, and the lives of many animals in that area. I was very surprised to find the child unharmed. Her life alone had been spared.”

The fifth spirit pursed her lips. Yelana was wrong. Elsa understood that, from the tribe leader’s perspective, it must have seemed that way. But Elsa herself had seen the truth, in the waters of Ahtohallan. The child had not been spared. She died with her mother, on the night of the fire. It was Bruni’s intervention that caused Yelana to find her still alive.

Elsa was familiar with this kind of power. It’s what allowed her to bring Olaf to life, as well as Marshmallow, Bjorn, and the snowgies. Whether she wanted to or not, Elsa had the power to breathe life into snow. And she knew for a fact that the other spirits had the same power. She recognized it into the fire wolves. Bruni must have breathed life into fire. And somehow, the fire spirit had also breathed life into Laila’s daughter, many years ago. If this person was still alive, she might be the reason why Ahtohallan showed Elsa those memories. She might hold the key to what was happening now.

“I took the child,” Yelana continued to narrate, “and I brought her to another woman in my tribe that had also had a baby that night. She accepted Laila’s daughter as her own, and the two children were raised as siblings.”

“Who is she?” Elsa asked. “Who is Laila’s daughter?”

Yelana smiled at her. “Why, my dear, don’t you see? It’s Honeymaren.”

A bonfire burned in the center of a wide ledge, a hidden recess in the side of the mountain that faced away from the sleeping city of Arendelle. Morning was just a few hours away, and not a living soul was in sight, except for her. With all of her clothes set aside on a pile nearby, the woman closed her eyes and stepped into the fire. Warmth enveloped her. There was no wind, and the crackling of burning wood was the only sound she could hear. Flames licked her arms and legs, tickled her back, and played around her hair. She breathed in the smoke and the embers, letting herself unwind.

“I knew there was something different about you,” called a stranger’s voice from nearby. Frightened, the woman crouched down into the flames, as if to conceal herself in them. “But I guess that knowing and seeing it firsthand are two very different things. Hello, Honeymaren.”

Queen Anna was coming into the ledge from the trail that circled the mountain, the same one Honeymaren had taken to get there.

“A— Anna!” Honeymaren stuttered. “I was— I mean, this is—”

“Don’t worry,” said the Queen. She sat herself on the ground a good two meters away from the bonfire. “I can keep a secret.”

“Really?!” Honeymaren asked, anxiously. The Queen smiled amiably at her, and Maren relaxed, letting out a breath that she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. They stood like that for a while, in silence. Honeymaren had expected Anna to demand some sort of explanation, but the Queen just sat there, as if the only reason she had come was to enjoy the other woman’s company. It was as if her standing naked in a fire had no relevance at all.

Maren let herself fall back into the state of peace she had been in moments before. She sang. The songs of her people had no lyrics, and no instruments to accompany them, but they were still powerful to hear. Each song had a theme, a motive. Honeymaren sang the song of fire. Warm and inviting, the center of all social life for the Northuldra. Home, to her people, is where the fire is.

Anna listened attentively, eyes closed, trying to take in all the subtleties of that melody. She would have sung along, had she known it beforehand.

Half-an-hour later, the two women were walking side by side as they made their way back to the campsite, on the other side of the mountain.

“When I was five-years-old,” Honeymaren narrated, “I pulled a prank on Ryder that he didn’t like. He got angry, and pushed me into a campfire. It was an accident. Well, when he realized what had happened, he tried to pull me out of the fire. Ryder burned his arm, while I just ruined some clothes.”

“Is that why you were naked, just now?” Anna asked.

Honeymaren smirked. “Can’t waste a good set of clothes, now, can I? Well... we didn’t tell the adults what happened. I think we made up some story, but I can’t remember. Ryder was afraid that Yelana would punish him for the accident, he was a scaredy-cat.”

“Doesn’t it hurt you?” the Queen asked.

Maren shook her head. “The heat doesn’t bother me,” she explained. “It never has. To be honest with you, the flames calm me down, they let me think more clearly about things. Sometimes, when I feel anxious or confused, I go to someplace hidden and build a fire to dive into.”

“Like today,” Anna observed. “If you don’t mind me asking, were you anxious or confused?”

Honeymaren chuckled. “Honestly?” she said, smiling. “Both.”

Anna didn’t press her about it, because she felt that she understood what Maren was feeling. Anna herself was anxious that Elsa and Kristoff hadn’t returned yet, and confused as to the reason. Anxious about the situation of Arendelle after the fires, and confused as to what brought the fireflies there, and why. There were, she realized, a lot of reasons for people to be simultaneously anxious and confused.

“So... who else knows about this?” she asked, instead.

“Besides Ryder, only you.”

Anna stopped walking.

So maybe she felt that Honeymaren’s smugness was incredibly annoying at times, and maybe she was a little jealous of the special way Elsa had been treating the girl... but hearing that she was the only person besides her brother that knew Maren’s secret? That made Anna feel a little satisfied. Now she knew something about Honeymaren that not even Elsa knew. This was fun.

“What is it?” Honeymaren asked, unsure of why they had stopped. But Anna simply smiled, shook her head, and resumed walking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Honeymaren-Anna bonding scene feels very precious to me <3
> 
> So, a lot of people complained, and rightfully so, about Honeymaren being described as Inga's daughter. I really didn't think it was a big deal at the time, but that was a bit naive. The identity of Maren's mother has no relevance to the story whatsoever, so I changed that bit. Sorry, everyone.


	14. Chapter 14

“There’s one more thing I want to ask you,” said Elsa. “Yelana... what do you know about the northern lights?”

The elder remained quiet for a long time, the silence broken only by the sound of burning wood in the fireplace at the center of the goathi.

“It’s been a long time since I last heard that name,” she declared, at last. “And an even longer time since the lights were seen above this forest. Not since the mist came, of course. Thirty-five years, my child. But I still remember what they looked like.”

“Do the Northuldra have any legends about them?” Elsa asked.

“Oh, yes, many,” said the tribe leader. “As varied as the colors of the forest. Each, I believe, painted one facet of the truth. Now, would you like to hear them, Elsa?”

The spirit nodded. Yelana looked at Anja, who smiled.

“Mother used to tell me,” said the younger woman, “that the lights appear when foxes take to the skies, at night. They run among the stars, sparks flying off their paws and burning the snows of winter in a thousand colors.” Anja smiled. “I don’t remember the lights, but I always thought it was silly, the idea of snow burning. Mother would guarantee me that it was real.”

“The legends of the aurora,” said Yelana, “belong to the world of spirits, and not to the world of humans. Different rules apply there, and things that we would otherwise find impossible can be made real. I’m sure that you, Elsa, as the bridge between those worlds, can understand what I’m talking about.”

Elsa nodded. “Normal rules never applied to me,” she confessed.

Yelana got up, grabbed a kettle from the floor near the back of the hut, and laid it on the grate above the fireplace. “Would you like tea?” she asked Elsa. “You should make yourself comfortable, there are many more stories for you to hear.”

Elsa did not come back the next day. The search party sent by Anna to the Black Mountains was unable to find her, or Kristoff. But surprisingly, however, they did find Sven.

Anna couldn’t quite put into words how glad she was when she saw the reindeer accompanying the group of soldiers in their return to Arendelle. Sven, too, was beyond himself with happiness, jumping, neighing and licking Anna’s face. The Queen ordered that a carrot be immediately brought to her friend.

“What about Kristoff?” she asked the captain of the guard.

“We did not find your fiancée, your Majesty,” said the captain. “But... this was found in the wagon that was strapped to this reindeer. I believe it may be of interest.”

The captain handed her a journal, which Anna immediately recognized as Kristoff’s travel log. It was there that he kept track of all his deliveries and requests for ice, with drafts for song lyrics and compositions for lute scribbled at the edges of pages. Seeing those had a soothing effect on Anna’s heart. It reminded her that Kristoff wasn’t some clueless prince, he was a mountain man, _raised_ in the Black Mountains. He would be all right.

Her eyes stopped at one of the last written pages, which contained this message:

_Tell Anna exact words:_

_I’ll come back soon. Won’t go too far ever again._

It was Kristoff’s handwriting, but Anna knew it was a message from her sister. The reference to Iduna’s lullaby was proof enough.

Anna understood the significance of those words. Elsa had already gone too far, once, and had almost gotten herself killed in the process. It was only the spirits’ interference, after Anna tore down the dam in the forest, that allowed for Elsa to come back. If she was bringing it up again, that meant Elsa must be going back to Ahtohallan once more, to find whatever answers Grand Pabbie and the trolls couldn’t give her. This explained her absence. It was a long trip from Arendelle to Ahtohallan. Given that she hadn’t taken Sven along, and that the other reindeer were all waiting in Oaken’s barn, this meant she was probably riding the water spirit, as Anna had often seen her do.

So she knew where Elsa was, now, but what about Kristoff? Anna’s fiancée couldn’t ride a spirit, and one way or the other he would lever leave Sven behind. It’s true that Elsa could have asked him for a favor of some sort, and he might still be dealing with whatever it was, but the fact that she’d left a message to Anna with Kristoff meant that she had expected Kristoff to return to Arendelle soon. He hadn’t.

Did Kristoff get _lost?_

Was that even possible? Anna wondered. It was one thing to get lost in the woods at the enchanted forest, but the Black Mountains were Kristoff’s home.

...And yet, they were still known to be treacherous and deceitful, even to the seasoned adventurer. This, she knew, was true. If Kristoff got lost, that would explain why he got separated from Sven, and why the search parties were unable to find him in the usual places, like the Skeleton Ridge or the Valley of the Living Rock. Anna realized that she knew what to do next. Kristoff knew the mountains well, but there were those who knew it even better.

Back at the camp, Anna told Honeymaren of what she’d discovered, and relayed her plan to her Northuldra friend. Anna would go to the mountains by sunset, to talk to Kristoff’s family. And if they still weren’t able to locate Kristoff with their help, she’d go down to the city of the Huldrefólk, in the heart of the mountains. The Huldrefólk were specialists in finding lost things, and Kristoff just might count as a “thing” that got lost.

Honeymaren laughed, and admitted this could actually work. But if Anna was going, so would she.

Elsa left the forest by daybreak, the next morning. After her conversation with Yelana and Anja, the previous night, the spirit felt that she’d finally gotten the answers she’d come North for. But before she could head back to Arendelle, and to Anna and the others, there was still one more thing she needed to do.

“Anja told me the fire foxes live near volcanoes, or so do the stories go,” she told the water spirit, while caressing his mane. “I know that’s not your kind of place, my friend, but if you could take me back to Svartelva in the Black Mountains, that could really help me. I can find my way from there.”

Elsa saw the Nøkk shake their head, neigh, and dig on the wet ground. She smiled. This was a yes.

“Thank you, my friend,” she told the water spirit, and covered him with a coating of frost.

The pair arrived at their destination a few hours before sunset. Elsa watched the Nøkk disappear into the waters of Svartelva, and turned around to look at her surroundings.

“Now... which way?” she asked herself. Elsa knew one of the mountains in that range was a volcano, called the Mountain of Living Fire. And if she had any hopes of finding the fire foxes of Anja’s tales, that was the best place to start.

It was only a fleeting hope, Elsa knew. Because even if it was a known fact that myths and legends contained truth, that didn’t have to mean that every word in them should be taken literally. Maybe the fire foxes in the stories were metaphors for something else, and therefore searching for actual foxes would be a waste of time... Still, Elsa had a feeling that this wasn’t the case. Perhaps it was the way myths had always accompanied her during her life, Elsa herself being a creature of myth in the stories of the Northuldra. Then, there were also all the times words of tales had proven true in her life. Her father’s stories about the spirits of the forest. Iduna’s songs of Ahtohallan. The legend of the fifth spirit. The Nattmara. The Huldrefólk. The tale of Aren and the Revolute blade... so many examples to pick from. Just like that, then, Elsa chose to trust that Anja’s words would prove true, and that somewhere in the volcanic lands of the Black Mountains she would be able to find a fire fox.

She walked around, taking in her surroundings. Maybe it would be a good idea to get to higher ground, so she could see more of the mountains, and determine where the volcano was. She walked to the base of the mountain closer to her, one of the smaller ones. It would take hours to climb to the top, and by then the sun might have already set. There was a better way to do this.

Elsa conjured an ice platform underneath her feet, and started to push it upwards over a growing pillar of ice. It rose a hundred meters into the air, and one would be very wise not to look down when standing on the platform at the top. Then Elsa made a skyway connecting the platform to the side of the mountain. She crossed the distance in a matter of minutes. Once on the mountainside, she repeated this process, rising another hundred meters into the air, and, by then, she had climbed most of the way up the mountain.

“Kristoff would be so mad if he saw me doing this,” Elsa told herself. Her ice magic may have been the source of many problems in the past, but it did come in handy from time to time. Standing on the side of the mountain that faced Arendelle, Elsa could now see a voluminous cloud of gray smoke rising from somewhere ahead of her. Could it be the volcano? She hadn’t expected it to be erupting. But as they say, where there’s smoke, there’s fire. And fire was the source of most of her current problems. She had better go and investigate.

Elsa was climbing down the side of the mountain, when her peripheral vision caught a hint of movement. She turned her head to look, and for a fraction of a second, Elsa thought she’d seen an orange blur skidding away. She started running in that direction, wondering if what she’d seen had any chance of being one of the fire foxes.

A few meters ahead, there was a cave. Indistinct noises and small growls seemed to be coming from inside. Elsa took careful steps toward the entrance, so as not to disturb whatever creature lived in there.

The setting sun was illuminating the inside of the cave.

There was no fire fox there.

But the cave wasn’t empty either.

“Hello, old friend,” said Elsa.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On the subject of folklore:  
> The fire foxes are technically a Finnish myth, not a Norwegian one, and that particular legend doesn't seem to be associated with the Sámi people either. But it's a very fitting myth for this story, and if we're going to get technical, the Sámi have no myth about a fifth spirit either. All through the story, I've made an effort to match my descriptions of the Northuldra with the culture of the Sámi people, but I'll allow myself this one freedom with the aurora myths.


	15. Chapter 15

It was thirty minutes into traveling aimlessly through the valleys when Honeymaren finally realized Anna had no idea where she was going.

“It’s this way, I’m certain!” said the Queen, on several occasions, only for them to wind up in dead ends half of the times. Then she turned Sven around, and tried a different path.

“You... don’t really know, do you?” Honeymaren asked, mildly worried, from the back of the wagon.

“Of course I do!” Anna countered, flailing Sven’s reins. “I’ve been here often with Kristoff.” _With Kristoff_ , Maren noticed. It didn’t take a mystic to figure out who had been doing the driving on those occasions.

Maren wasn’t afraid of getting lost. If she could survive for a week in the land of the Earth Giants without starving or getting crushed, she could manage the mountains. But the sun was setting, and if Anna intended to keep going, Maren was of the opinion that they should stop and find a place to make camp. Wolves were one concern, but the temperature drops of late November nights shouldn’t be overlooked either. It would be prudent to gather some wood for a campfire soon.

She was just about to tell Anna all this, when the Queen of Arendelle let out a yelp of delight.

“There it is!” she exclaimed, smiling and pointing forward. She looked around at Maren. “See? I told you I could find it.”

Anna guided Sven to a wide round area surrounded with steam vents, and littered with boulders about the size of pumpkins.

“Hello!” Anna called.

Nothing happened.

Honeymaren looked between Anna and their surroundings. There did not seem to be anyone there, except for them.

“I’m sorry to bother you!” Anna called again. “But we need your help!”

Anna jumped off the wagon, and started walking among the rocks.

“Look, I know I don’t have Kristoff with me, today,” she argued, “but you remember me, right? I’m Anna! Sven’s over there!” she pointed at the reindeer. “And that girl is Honeymaren, she’s a friend too. I need you guys to help me find Kristoff. Please? Bulda? Pabbie?”

Honeymaren cleared her throat. “Anna... are you talking to those rocks?” she asked, cautiously.

“Yeah, yeah,” said Anna, dismissively. “Just give me a minute.”

The last rays of direct sunlight abandoned the valley as the sun disappeared under the horizon. The ground shook, and suddenly the pumpkin-sized rocks sprung to life, jumping up and down all around Anna.

Honeymaren raised her eyebrows, surprised. “Now _that’s_ something you don’t see everyday,” she remarked.

Anna turned to look at her. “Honeymaren,” she called, “meet Kristoff’s family.”

The Northuldra woman blinked twice, stunned.

“Come again?”

The trolls were aware of Kristoff’s disappearance, of course. The told Anna of how he’d left to guide Elsa to a nearby river, and had not come back since. If he really did get himself lost, then that meant he must have taken a path southeast, to those valleys beyond the territory of the trolls. It seemed logical that Anna should search there next. Also, Miner’s Mountain, where the Huldrefólk city was located, just so happened to be in that direction, so that’s two birds with one stone.

Anna spoke to Honeymaren about it, and they decided to leave by sunrise. The trolls prepared their visitors beds of peat, dry grass and moss, as well as a pot of steaming mushroom stew which would, in Anna’s opinion, barely even classify as food. Anna always wondered how Kristoff had managed to survive for thirteen years on troll cuisine alone.

Honeymaren had left to gather firewood, while there was still enough natural light to make out her surroundings. The trolls had assured her that there would be no danger of wolves in the valley, but Maren wasn’t taking any chances. Fire was her best friend, and her protection.

Still, there didn’t seem to be much to build a fire with, around these parts. The terrain of the Black Mountains was mostly barren. She found some twigs and branches, but nothing too promising.

It was about then that she heard a noise. Something was scratching the ground and rattling the bushes, somewhere beyond the boulders to her right. Maren felt around for her staff, instinctively, only to remember she’d left it inside Sven’s wagon. Real clever. She pulled a boning knife from her belt. It wasn’t much to protect herself with, but it was definitely better than being unarmed.

The creature came into view. Massive, with white fur and fangs, and claws strong enough to bring down a tree. Black eyes stared into Maren’s. A moment of silence, where none dared move, and then it charged toward her.

“Shit!” Maren cursed, and started running away. “Help!” she called. “Bear!”

The white bear easily overran her. It leaped on Maren, pinning her down to the ground. For the second time that week, Honeymaren realized she was just about to die.

The creature sniffed her face. Maren closed her eyes, preparing for the worse.

And then it licked her face.

“Now, this is getting ridiculous,” Maren spoke, remembering she had gone through nearly the exact same situation with the fire wolves in the forest.

A voice came from somewhere behind the white bear.

“Bjorn!” it called. “What did you find there?”

Honeymaren couldn’t quite believe her ears. She recognized that voice, but it couldn’t be true, could it? Because if it was true, that would be the single most unlikely coincidence of her entire life.

And yet...

“Maren?” Elsa called, possibly as astounded as Honeymaren was at that moment. The bear kept licking her face, and the four hundred kilograms of compressed murder power in a white fur coat seemed at that moment no more threatening than a golden retriever.

“A little help here?” Maren asked.

Elsa whistled, and the bear jumped off Maren and happily ran back to the ice spirit, who caressed its snout. Maren lifted a hand to her face, and attempted to wipe all the polar bear saliva from it. Yuck.

“Why...” she began to ask, getting up to her feet, “...do you own a bear?”

Elsa chuckled. “Long story,” she told the other woman, walking up to her. “What are you doing out here? I thought you were going to stay in Arendelle with my sister.”

“Change of plans,” Maren told the spirit, her heart still recovering from the polar bear attack from earlier. “We’re looking for Kristoff. Oh, Anna’s here, by the way.”

“She is?” Elsa asked, surprised. “And what do you mean, ‘looking for Kristoff’?”

“In time,” said Maren. “Can you help me gather some firewood? I’ll fill you in on the details while we make our way back to Anna and the trolls.”

“Ah, sure...” said the ice spirit, and she turned around to search her surroundings for wood. Then she felt a warm touch on her right palm, and realized Honeymaren had taken her hand.

“Elsa?” Maren called. She turned to look, and saw that the brunette was smiling gently at her. “I’m glad you’re here,” said Maren.

Elsa smiled as well, feeling the same warmth inside her chest that she always felt when Honeymaren was by her side. “Yeah,” she said, “me too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no idea how many people are still reading this story, or if you're enjoying this. I hope at least one or two of you will stay with me up to the last chapter.
> 
> (For those of you who haven't read Forest of Shadows, meet Bjorn, Elsa's polar bear)


	16. Kristoff's interlude

Kristoff Bjorgman discovered that he preferred mountains when they were solid.

“Hot!” he yelped, dodging a rivulet of lava.

Hours before, when Kristoff first caught sight of the large clouds of smoke that rose from the top of the mountain, his first impulse had been to investigate. In retrospect, that had been the single most senseless decision of his life. He hadn’t even made it halfway up the mountainside when the overflowing lava began pouring down from the top, forming rivers all around him that split and rejoined in an almost random fashion, making his journey back down many times more challenging than it should have been.

Kristoff was reminded of his childhood. Back then, he often played a game with Sven where they pretended that the floor was lava. Now that the floor was actually lava, he realized this was a lot less fun than his eight-year-old self used to believe.

He jumped over another rivulet, slipped on the gravel and slid downhill a few meters, stopping just short of what he assumed would be a hot and painful death.

“That... was close...” he said, panting.

“Bjorgman!” a voice shouted. Kristoff looked up.

A few meters uphill from where he had jumped, there was a cave. A bearded old man — who looked remarkably like the nisse from the folk tales — was standing at the entrance, calling his name.

“Sorenson?” Kristoff asked, in disbelief.

“Come over! Quick!” said the bearded man. Kristoff did not need telling twice. He scuttled uphill, scattering gravel as he went, until he was able to reach the surprisingly cold floor of the cave. Sorenson motioned for him to follow, and they walked further into the cave. About thirty meters from the entrance, the tunnel widened into a round area, lit by hanging lamps on the walls and absolutely cluttered with stuff. There were piles of books _everywhere_ , as well as countless absurdly-complex-looking devices, which put Kristoff in mind of stories about the alchemists from the past. Kristoff knew Sorenson was fond of intricate machines, he’d seen many such tools in the man’s house on Miner’s Mountain, but this was something else. They were larger, and weirder.

“Sit down, sit down, make yourself comfortable,” said Sorenson. Kristoff had no idea what the old man could have meant by that, since there did not seem to be any place for him to sit on, except books.

“Erm... so, what are you doing here, exactly?” he asked.

“Can’t you tell?” retorted Sorenson, who was currently in the process of serving himself a cup of tea. “I’m doing science. And of the best kind, too. This will be the first time in recorded history where someone has managed to witness a volcanic eruption from the _inside_. Groundbreaking work, my good mountain man. How does that sound to you?”

It sounded to Kristoff like pure madness.

“Isn’t this a bit dangerous?” he tried to argue. “The lava could trap you in here.”

“Unlikely,” said Sorenson. “I’ve plotted the routes of lava flow using several physics models, and all predictions point to this particular cave surviving the episode... But, well, just in case I’m wrong, I’ve got a barrel of some good stuff out back, should I need to blast my way out of here.”

Sorenson pointed at a row of barrels lined by the wall, one of which labeled “Highly Flammable and Very Dangerous Combustion Powder.” Kristoff winced.

“What about food and water?”

“I have enough here to last me three months,” Sorenson replied. “And don’t bother asking about the air quality, or the temperature, the machines are taking care of that.”

_Okay_ , thought Kristoff. Sorenson really seemed to have thought this through well enough. But there was a problem...

“Three months!” Kristoff yelped. “I can’t stay here that long! I need to go back to Anna, in Arendelle!”

Surprisingly, the old man started laughing.

“Oh, no need to worry, mountain man. I suspect this eruption will not last longer than a few days.”

Kristoff let out a breath of relief. “Did the physics models tell you that?” he asked.

“Nope,” said Sorenson, sipping his tea. “But my intuition tells me your sister-in-law will want to interfere.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a shorter chapter than most, but I just wanted to upload it already since I love it so much.
> 
> Liquid mountains aren't fun.
> 
> (FYI, Sorenson is another character from Forest of Shadows. It was completely unintentional, but I think I included most of the book cast in the fic already)


End file.
